The former presidential campaign manager said he has deep respect for Clinton. | REUTERS Plouffe: Clinton strong for 2016

President Barack Obama’s former top adviser David Plouffe says Hillary Clinton is “probably the strongest” candidate in either party among potential 2016 presidential contenders.

“She is in both parties right now by far I think the most interesting candidate, probably the strongest candidate. But she has right now the opportunity to take some well deserved and rare time for her with her family and figure things out,” Plouffe said on Sunday to PBS’s Jeff Greenfield during an interview at the 92nd Street Y.


He later added: “I think all of us who went through that primary just have the highest degree of admiration for her. She obviously would be an enormously strong candidate if she decided to run, we’ve got others obviously who will look at it certainly if she doesn’t. But it’s too soon to know.”

Plouffe said that he has deep respect for the former secretary of State, according to a video of the event posted on the Y’s YouTube site.

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“There’s no question that we had a very tough primary. I’m sure in this audience there were people who were fervent Clinton supporters and Obama supporters. It’s interesting when you go through something like that, you’re the only people that can fully appreciate what it was like,” Plouffe said.

He also said that he would not run her campaign.

“All I know is that I’ll accept the call — whenever she calls — even if it’s at 3 a.m. But my days of running presidential campaigns, I’m just going to be helping like everybody else,” Plouffe said, referring to Clinton’s 2008 Democratic primary attack ad against then-candidate Obama. “No, I will not run your campaign because I’m done with that.”