Hillary Clinton for president? Eight Democrats who might run next time.

Washington

1.Hillary Rodham Clinton

The close runner-up for the Democratic nomination four years ago, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, would enter the 2016 cycle as her party’s instant front-runner. If anything, Secretary Clinton has boosted her stock since 2008, when she buried the hatchet with Barack Obama and took on the tough portfolio at State.

She has earned high marks for her energetic performance. And for 10 straight years, she has topped the Gallup poll as America’s most admired woman. But she says she’s ready to step off the "high wire of American politics" after 20 years as first lady, senator, presidential candidate, and cabinet secretary.

Still, one last chance at breaking the highest, hardest glass ceiling and becoming the first woman president of the United States may be too tempting to pass up – even though she will be in her late 60s in 2016.

Her husband, former President Clinton, is often asked whether she’ll run. His answer is always a version of what he told CBS News in September: “It’s a decision she’ll have to make. But whatever she does, I’m for her first, last, and always.”

But it’s hard not to look at Mr. Clinton, who campaigned with gusto for President Obama’s reelection, and not see someone who is aching to see his wife try again.

“Every indication is that he would really want her to run,” a friend of Mr. Clinton’s told Jodi Kantor of The New York Times recently.

Most rank-and-file Democrats are on the same page. Some 61 percent of Democratic primary voters want Mrs. Clinton as their party’s nominee next time, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released in early December. Vice President Joe Biden came in second with 14 percent, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo came in third with 5 percent.

2.Joe Biden

If Mr. Obama heads into his final stretch in office with a decent economy and no major liabilities abroad, then Vice President Joe Biden could be in a position to claim Obama’s “third term” – especially if Mrs. Clinton doesn’t run.

For more than a year, Mr. Biden has dropped hints about 2016. On Election Day, while waiting in line to vote in his home state of Delaware, he was asked if this was the last time he’ll vote for himself. He smiled: “No, I don’t think so.” At another point he joked about running for “county council or something.”

“I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in my life,” Biden told CNN in October 2011, when asked about 2016. “I’m doing pretty well, I’m enjoying what I’m doing, and as long as I do, I’m going to continue doing it.”

One issue might be age. Biden will be in his mid-70s in 2016. If he runs, he’d be angling to be the oldest person ever elected president.

Biden has been a Washington fixture since his first election to the Senate in 1972 – and he’s run for president twice before. By 2015, when the field starts to form, Democrats may be looking to their next generation for presidential candidates.

3.Andrew Cuomo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York took office in January 2011 and has already established a national reputation as a leader. He pleased liberals by fighting successfully for the passage of gay marriage, despite a balky state legislature. But he also satisfied centrists by passing a budget that cut spending and didn’t raise taxes, by taking on the state’s big public-sector union, and by achieving tax reform. Governor Cuomo has polled well above 50 percent in most public surveys since taking office.

If neither Mrs. Clinton nor Vice President Biden runs, then Cuomo is the likely beneficiary. A version of the December PPP poll – with Clinton and Biden opting not to run – had Cuomo coming in first among the named candidates with 21 percent, behind “undecided” (which got 45 percent).

Cuomo also has Washington experience, having served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Mr. Clinton’s second term. Critics say Cuomo’s promotion of homeownership for lower-income people helped lead to the subprime mortgage crisis.

As the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, the junior Cuomo has a long history in politics. He worked both on his father’s campaign and in his administration. The question is whether he has more presidential fire in the belly than his father, who once famously kept a plane waiting on the tarmac while he decided whether to fly to New Hampshire to launch a presidential campaign.

So far, the younger Cuomo is keeping his powder dry. But with his famous political name, he can afford to focus on his job for now and not work the Democratic rubber-chicken circuit to build connections. In a radio interview on Dec. 10, Cuomo would not say whether he would support Clinton if she decides to run in 2016.

4.Martin O'Malley

Of all the next-generation Democratic leaders, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland has been appearing to play the traditional “testing the waters” game more than other possible Democratic contenders. Since taking office in January 2007, Governor O’Malley has worked his way up the ranks of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), serving as chairman in 2011 and 2012 – a position that allows him to build connections, and goodwill, with Democrats around the country.

Next, O’Malley will take over as the DGA’s finance chairman, a position that keeps him connected to the party’s major donors. He’s also a regular on national cable news and a speaker at Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinners for state Democratic parties. On Dec. 9, O’Malley said on Baltimore TV that Clinton could make a “great president,” if she chooses to run. Reports have suggested that if she runs, O’Malley will not.

But since Clinton has said she won’t run, O’Malley seems to be giving the idea serious consideration.

In 2009, Governing magazine named O’Malley one of its “Public Officials of the Year.” The magazine cited his data-driven approach, both as governor and as a two-term mayor of Baltimore before that. He has signed legislation legalizing gay marriage and in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants in Maryland, and both measures were supported by Maryland voters on Election Day.

5.Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia was considered a top-tier prospect for the 2008 presidential race, until he took himself out of contention, citing family concerns. Now the talk is back for 2016.

Warner, a wealthy former businessman, was a popular Virginia governor from 2002 to 2006, having left office because of the state’s one-term limit (though a second term is allowed, as long as it’s not consecutive). There was speculation that Warner might decide to run for governor again in 2013, but he announced he will not run.

Now the question is, does he run for Senate again in 2014, and from there try for president. Some Democrats doubt he’ll run for president, because his centrist approach in the Senate could make it hard for him to excite the Democratic base and therefore difficult to win a presidential primary. Warner was a member of the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Six – three Democrats, three Republicans – who tried unsuccessfully in 2011 to work out a deficit reduction deal. In 2012, the group expanded into a Gang of Eight, with Warner at the heart of its activities. 

6.Brian Schweitzer

A rancher who never held elective office until he became governor of Montana in 2005, Brian Schweitzer reaches his two-term limit at the beginning of 2013. A dynamic public speaker, Governor Schweitzer garnered attention with his address at the 2008 Democratic convention.

Until recently, Schweitzer deflected questions about any national ambitions. But on Dec. 2, he dropped a big hint on CNN.

"I'm governor of Montana until January," Schweitzer said. "At that point, I'll no longer have a governor's mansion, I won't have a driver, I won't have security, so I'll have a little time on my hands. I think I did mention that I have a warm regard for the people of Iowa and New Hampshire."

Like O’Malley of Maryland, he has built a nationwide political network by serving as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and the Western Governors’ Association, as well as president of the Council of State Governments.

Fun fact: Schweitzer ran on a bipartisan ticket in 2004 with Republican John Bohlinger, and the two have been a team ever since.

The biggest question about a potential Schweitzer candidacy is whether the Democratic base would see him as too centrist to support for president.

7.Deval Patrick

Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has many of the attributes of a potential presidential candidate: He’s a popular two-term governor with an up-by-the-bootstraps life story, two degrees from Harvard, and high-level corporate experience. He has also shown some of the telltale signs of a nascent presidential campaign. He has started a political-action committee, published two books with a third in the works, and traveled extensively out of state, including trips to battleground states and neighboring New Hampshire, home of the first primary.

In an interview with ABC News in September, Patrick said he would not run for president in 2016, but did not rule out a future campaign. He called talk of a 2016 campaign “just chatter.”

“I’m gonna finish my term [as governor] in 2014. I’m gonna return to the private sector where I’ve spent … most of my career,” Patrick said.

“If there is a time sometime later to come back and serve in public life, I hope I’m able to do that. Just not going to be in 2016,” he added.

Perhaps working against Patrick is the fact that he’s from Massachusetts – home state of three recent failed presidential nominees: two Democrats (Sen. John Kerry and former Gov. Michael Dukakis) and Republican former Gov. Mitt Romney. Also, as an African-American originally from Chicago, it’s an open question whether Patrick’s similarities to Obama would help or hurt (or neither) if he ever decided to run.

8.Elizabeth Warren

A darling of the left, Professor Warren has been the subject of presidential talk for months – long before she beat Sen. Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts on Nov. 6.

Now that she is Senator-elect Warren, the drumbeat is getting louder. If Clinton and Biden opt not to run, Warren polls second only to Cuomo among Democratic primary voters for the 2016 nomination, in a recent PPP poll. And she has remarkable name recognition among Democrats – 57 percent, per PPP – for someone who has just been elected to office for the first time.

Warren shot to public prominence when she conceptualized and promoted the idea for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from unfair lending practices. In the process, she became a liberal lightning rod, and thus unconfirmable in the Senate as the bureau’s first head – so Obama appointed her a special adviser to help set up the bureau. She served in that post from September 2010 to August 2011, when she returned to her faculty job at Harvard Law School.

Warren brought to her Senate campaign a long record as an expert on bankruptcy law – and a populist passion for defending the lower and middle classes. She grew up in Oklahoma City, the daughter of a janitor.

During her Senate campaign, she raised a whopping $42 million - much of it from outside Massachusetts. Websites promoting Warren for president have sprung up on the web, but Warren herself isn’t ready to go there: "I have 5 words for that: No, no, no, no, no," Warren told ABC News in October.