“If you look at some of the things he’s done over the past weeks and months, he’s definitely checking the box on a number of issues, so he might try to run to the left,” he said.

“In primaries, and he knows this, it’s usually most effective to court the fringe of the fringe.”

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“I would bet my left arm that she’s going to be playing a significant role in the national conversation now,” Singer said.

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“Once the campaign actually engages, in addition to raising as much money as humanly possible right now, a lot of prospective candidates try to get right on the various issues that might motivate constituencies in the nominating process,” said Phil Singer, a Democratic consultant and former spokesman for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

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Less than two months after Organizing for Action launched during an inauguration in which Obama delivered a fiery speech about his second-term priorities, his failure to reach a budget deal with Congress to avoid so-called sequester spending cuts is showing limits of his power and forcing him to take a more conciliatory approach to the opposition party.

Where OFA may have the most success: burnishing the president’s image so that he can use his popularity to push his agenda, and tapping its vast voter database to identify supporters who will lobby members of Congress. For example, OFA’s detailed catalogue of information could allow it to send carefully crafted messages to gun-control supporters in Republican-leaning states with gun-friendly elected officials.

“If you engage those people, that’s going to send a message to office holders who might start to realize their state is not scarlet red and more purple than they thought,” Singer said. “For all the new technology, members of Congress are remarkably sensitive to the calls that come over the phone.”

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“Cuomo has always advocated a very progressive agenda on social issues and a very moderate agenda on fiscal issues,” said Phil Singer, a top aide to Cuomo’s 2010 campaign.

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Even Phil Singer, a Clinton loyalist and former consigliere, concedes that Biden has made a good case for being taken seriously.

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“She will be a major player in impacting public policy and American life overall,” said Phil Singer, a top official in her 2008 presidential campaign. “Even if she tries to hide, the spotlight finds her. She will examine which platform affords her the best ability to influence the issues she really cares about. And I have to say, despite all the hype, I think there’s a very real chance she will not run.”

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The big question now is whether her departure from the Obama administration is her farewell to public service — or if she’ll back in four years on the same stage for her own inauguration as Madame President.

“Barring any kind of physical setback, the world is her oyster,” Singer said. “She’ll be able to pursue whatever she decides she wants to pursue.”

[...]

No one doubts that Clinton would be formidable as a presidential candidate in 2016 — but Singer warns it’s no slam dunk.

“If she is weighing a run, you couldn’t be in a better position right now than she’s in,” Singer said.

“She’s enjoying the kinds of numbers most politicians dream of,” he said. But, he added, “2016 is a lifetime away.”

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But Democratic strategist Phil Singer, also a former Hill aide, said there was a chance that public pressure stemming from outrage over the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings could force Republican leaders to reconsider their opposition to at least some of the measures – or risk being painted as unreasonable and beholden to the gun lobby.

“It will be very difficult and it will require a tremendous amount of work, but I think that there is a decent chance that it could happen,” Singer said. “At this point, it is irresponsible to rule out getting it done. The process has only just begun. I think there is a path forward.”

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“Both governors have a shared fidelity to pragmatism and have built brands premised on doing the right thing and not the political thing. So it’s easy to understand why they work well together,” said Phil Singer, an adviser to Cuomo’s campaign.

It’s a relationship that’s been on public display since Sandy ravaged their states in late October, and that was brought into sharper focus when Christie and Cuomo issued a joint statement denouncing Congress for slow-walking the Sandy aid package on New Year’s Day.

“When American citizens are in need, we come to their aid. That tradition was abandoned in the House last night,” they said in their statement the following day. “The people of our states can no longer afford to wait while politicians in Washington play games.”

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