Clinton: 2016 decision will come next year

Hillary Clinton said she would look carefully at running for president in 2016 and decide sometime next year. 

In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, the former secretary of State said she has still not made up her mind about a second run for the White House. 

“Obviously, I will look carefully at what I think I can do and make that decision sometime next year,” she said. 

{mosads}Clinton, who has made similar comments in the past, is widely expected to run for president, and early polling has shown her with a large advantage in the Democratic primary. 

Clinton said she is in no hurry to decide, adding that the public should be focused on current issues, like lowering the unemployment rate and increasing food stamps. 

“It’s such a difficult decision, and it’s one that I’m not going to rush into … and I don’t think we should be looking at the next election,” said Clinton, named by Walters as the most fascinating person of the year.

Clinton added that it is important to see a female president in her lifetime.

“It matters,” Clinton said of a female president. “It matters because we have half the population that has given so much to building this country, to making it work, raising children and, of course, I want to see women eventually in the White House.”

Jokingly, Clinton said she does not know what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would be called if she were elected: “First mate, I don’t know.”

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, another potential candidate, said on Wednesday night the Democratic nomination could not be a coronation.

He took an indirect jab at Clinton’s vote on the Iraq war during her time in the Senate. The issue became a key distinction between her and President Obama during the 2008 election. 

“When George Bush got a bunch of Dems to vote for that war, I was just shaking my head in Montana,” Schweitzer said during a speech in Iowa on Wednesday, according to CNN.

He added: “I’m asking you to pick the leaders who aren’t going to make those mistakes.”