A day before Hillary Clinton is expected to announce her second run for the White House, President Barack Obama said she would make an “excellent president.”
“She was a formidable candidate in 2008,” Obama said in response to a question at a news conference in Panama. “She was a great supporter of mine in the general election. She was an outstanding secretary of state. She is my friend. I think she would be an excellent president.”
Obama and Clinton have remained in touch since she left the State Department in 2013 where she served as Obama’s secretary of state in the first term.
“When she makes a decision to announce, I'm confident she will be very clear about her vision for the country moving forward if she announces,” he said.
Obama said Clinton's role as secretary of state has prepared her to “handle herself very well in any conversations and debates around foreign policy.”
But Obama declined to weigh on the Democratic field. Others considering a run for the Democratic nomination are independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Sen. Jim Webb or Virginia and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
“Not only have I run my last election, but I am not in the business of prognosticating future elections,” he said.