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Will President Obama again block Hillary Clinton from becoming president?

In 2008, the odds of a Democrat winning the White House were very good. The political environment in the aftermath of eight years of President George W. Bush was set for a change to an opposing political party. President Bush's approval ratings were way down, many in the country were tired of the way he ran Washington, D.C., and they were frustrated by his apparent inability to bring the country together.

Any Democrat who got the nomination that year had a high likelihood of winning the general election. As I have said before, the most dominant factor in presidential elections is the existing environment parties and candidates face.

In that year, then-Sen. Obama became the Democratic standard bearer, having beaten Hillary Clinton in a close primary contest. He then went on to win a fairly easy victory over John McCain in the general election, as the Arizona senator struggled to distance himself from all the baggage that came from President Bush's second term.

It wasn't the tactics, or the media, or the campaign staffs that determined victory -- by and large, it was where the country wanted to go.

Today, Obama is nearly in the exact same position as Bush was at this same point. His approval numbers are down, the country has lost faith and trust in his leadership, and voters hunger for someone who can make Washington work again.

The political environment at the moment (and we have two years to go until 2016, so things could change) is tilted in favor of a Republican winning the White House no matter who the Democratic nominee will be.

Hillary Clinton looks to be on the verge of running in a Democratic nomination race with virtually no real opposition. She will be extremely difficult to beat. She starts out nearly 60 points ahead, and all other strong challengers are seemingly ceding her the nomination.

But she faces a very difficult general election environment if the Republicans nominate any reasonable candidate. This difficult general election environment created in no small part by Obama's two terms in office.

Obama, having beaten Hillary the first time in 2008, may actually cause her to lose if she is the nominee in 2016 because independent voters have a strong desire to change from the current incumbent's leadership.

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Biggest Impediment for Hillary Clinton: Her Former Boss

Feb 2, 2014 9:10pm

For Hillary Clinton, the best Super Bowl defense is some offense unless its the other way around.

The former secretary of state roiled the Twitterverse midway through tonights big game with a rare tweet that seemed to respond to the aggressive media coverage shes drawn of late.

Its so much more fun to watch FOX when its someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl, Clinton Tweeted from @HillaryClinton.

No specifics followed from her or from the Clinton camp, but the tweet was immediately interpreted as a reference to Fox News Channels coverage of all things Clinton, starting with continued questioning of the tragic incident in Benghazi, Libya.

Her Tweet came just hours after President Obama sparred with Fox News host Bill OReilly over Foxs coverage of his administration in a pre-game interview.

OReilly questioned Obama on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the IRS scandal two issues the president said have been drummed up by Fox News.

These kinds of things keep on surfacing in part because you and your TV station will promote them, the president said in the live 10-minute interview.

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Hillary Clinton Twitter-Blitzes Fox News During Super Bowl

Feb 2, 2014 4:53pm

WASHINGTON Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is siding with President Obama on the issue of sanctions against Iran, saying Congress should hold off on imposing any additional sanctions while diplomatic negotiations run their course.

Clinton conveyed her stance in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last month.

Now that serious negotiations are finally under way, we should do everything we can to test whether they can advance a permanent solution, the letter said. As President Obama has said, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed, while keeping all options on the table.

The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that imposing new unilateral sanctions now would undermine the prospects for a successful comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran. I share that view, Clinton said. It could rob us of the diplomatic high ground we worked so hard to reach, break the united international front we constructed, and in the long run, weaken the pressure on Iran by opening the door for other countries to chart a different course.

I have no doubt that this is the time to give our diplomacy the space to work. If it does not, there will be time to put in place additional sanctions in the future, with greater international support necessary to ensure enforcement, and to explore every other option on the table, she said in the letter.

The letter came in response to a request from Levin, who asked her to weigh in on the issue.

This is a thoughtful, persuasive argument from an experienced, respected senior official, Levin said. It makes clear Secretary Clintons belief that tough sanctions helped bring Iran to the negotiating table, and that Congress and the administration are poised to act if Iran violates its commitments or fails to negotiate in good faith toward a final agreement.

Her letter is another strong signal to Congress that we should not take any legislative action at this time that would damage international unity or play into the hands of hard-liners in Iran who oppose negotiations, he said.

Obama has said he would veto any legislation calling for new sanctions against Iran at this time.

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Hillary Clinton Sides With Obama on Iran Sanctions

WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton is backing President Obamas opposition to new economic sanctions against Iran.

Obama announced in his State of the Union address last week that he would veto any legislation that called for such sanctions, as negotiations to extend an interim nuclear weapons agreement proceed. Some prominent Republicans support new sanctions.

Clinton, the former secretary of State and presumed early frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, detailed her position in a Jan. 26 letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan.

Clinton, who wrote to Levin at his invitation, said that the negotiations should be given a chance to succeed.

"Now that serious negotiations are finally underway, we should do everything we can to test whether they can advance a permanent solution," Clinton wrote two days before Obamas speech.

She added that new sanctions "could rob us of the diplomatic high ground we worked so hard to reach, break the united international front we constructed, and in the long run, weaken the pressure on Iran by opening the door for other countries to chart a different course."

A copy of Clintons letter was released by Levin on Sunday after Politico wrote about it.

On Nov. 24, a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Clintons successor, joined by Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany, reached the interim agreement with Iran. In exchange for relaxed economic sanctions worth approximately $7 billion per year Iran agreed to freeze and partially roll back aspects of its nuclear program, which it has said would be for civilian, not military, purposes.

On Dec. 10, an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies provided to the administration and Congress said that "new sanctions would undermine the prospects for a successful comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran," according to a subsequent letter to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from 10 Democratic colleagues.

The Obama administrations stance toward Iran became a focal point of congressional debate, with implications for the 2014 midterm elections and, perhaps, presidential politics.

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Backing Obama, Hillary Clinton opposes new Iran sanctions

Hilarious Hillary! Former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton sent out a good-humored tweet poking fun at Fox while Super Bowl XLVIII was being broadcast on the network Sunday, Feb. 2.

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"It's so much more fun to watch FOX when its someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl," she joked, using football terminology with her 1. 1 million plus followers on Twitter.

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Longtime Democrat Clinton, 66, shared the tweet several hours after President Obama gave his annual Super Sunday interview, this year to conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor. The two went head-to-head on issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act and the IRS scandal, to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic embassy in Benghazi, Libya -- the latter which occurred when Clinton was Secretary of State at the time.

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The President later called out O'Reilly and said, "These kinds of things keep on surfacing because you and your TV station will promote them."

As of the following morning, Clinton's post was re-tweeted more than 54,000 times. Her press secretary Nick Merrill told USA Today that the tweet "was good-natured, light-hearted, and self-deprecating."

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Hillary Clinton Jokingly Mocks Fox During Super Bowl: Read Her Tweet