Deval Patrick For President In 2016? ‘I’ve Thought About It, But No’

Will outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick run for president in 2016? Don’t hold your breath, according to an interview he gave on Sunday’s Meet the Press .

“I’ve thought about it, but no, I can’t get ready for 2016,” Patrick told host Chuck Todd. “I’ve felt it’s been two really challenging and fun terms, but I didn’t run for the job to get another job. I ran to do this job.”

Patrick, a Democrat, is the first African American governor of Massachusetts. He has served in that office since taking over from Republican Mitt Romney in 2007.

His status as a two-term governor of a blue state has prompted some to consider him as a possible challenger for the 2016 Democratic nomination. But he has long pushed back against the idea that “Deval Patrick for President” signs will be popping up across the country any time soon.

“I am not running for president in 2016,” the Boston Globe quoted him as saying last year. “I’m going to finish this second term, I’m going to go back into the private sector.”

He also blamed his party’s losses in this year’s midterm elections, which propelled the Republicans back into the Senate majority, on “Democrats who don’t stand for anything.” That failure starts in the White House, he said, with President Obama being unable to articulate his successes or values to the degree necessary.

“One problem the president has is he doesn’t tell the story well or regularly,” Patrick told Todd.

The Massachusetts governor was also in charge of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in the Clinton administration. Todd pointed to that experience when asking Patrick for his take on last week’s announcement that Darren Wilson, the white police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., would not be indicted.

“Of course I wanted to see an indictment,” he said, “mostly because I think a trial and the transparency of a trial would be good for the community.”

While there won’t be a Deval Patrick presidential campaign in 2016, he cautioned against a Hillary Clinton coronation,saying that while she “has been an extraordinary public servant and would be a terrific candidate…the narrative that it’s inevitable is off putting to regular voters.”

Deval Patrick For President In 2016? ‘I’ve Thought About It, But No’