It Begins: Schumer Endorses Hillary Clinton for President

It Begins: Schumer Endorses Hillary Clinton for President, Not even waiting until a year has passed since the last general election, a prominent Democrat has officially endorsed an all-but-official candidate for 2016. In a speech in front of Iowa Democrats last night, New York Senator Chuck Schumer declared that "2016 is Hillary’s time.”

And so it begins. Establishment Democrats like Schumer are striking out early (never too early!) to make sure the rest of the party gets behind Clinton, even after doing the exact same thing for her disastrous 2008 campaign. Schumer, speaking about his former colleague, said that if Hillary runs, "Our nation will be all the better for it.”

This follows last week's revelation that every Democratic woman in the Senate had signed a letter urging Clinton to run. Clinton has yet to signal whether she will indeed be running in 2016.

“Run, Hillary, run,” Sen. Schumer told the same Iowa Democrats who voted for Obama in the 2008 primary. “If you run, you’ll win and we’ll all win. With a strong platform and with Hillary leading the charge, we will vanquish the Ted Cruz Tea Party Republicans in 2016.”

Obviously wary of what a battering primary race would do to the party (see: Republicans in 2012), elder Democrats like Schumer are trying to keep other establishment Democrats, like Vice President Biden, out of the race entirely. But will this just be a replay of 2008? Will Hillary, touted as the lock for the candidacy, be pushed out by someone younger, flashier, and not a Clinton? Did anyone take Obama's campaign seriously in 2005?