POLITICO Primary: And the winner is...

http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Ahv6.Bf4Qm4PVnfuK6UsJYf59XQA;_ylu=X3oDMTFqMDgxZXM0BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTJyOWo4MDl1BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZDBkNTlkOTctMWJkOS0zM2NkLWIzZjUtYjQwOGMzMmZhMDJjBHBzdGNhdANwb2xpdGljcwRwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2U-;_ylv=0/SIG=11ss8chuk/EXP=1319799455/**http%3A//www.politico.com/politicoprimary/ Winner: Hillary Clinton By Mike Allen, 10/13/11 5:00 AM EDT Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she wouldn’t stick around for a second Obama term, but online fans hope she is not finished with politics. Clinton ran away with the POLITICO Primary, a weeklong feature in which readers were asked to select their fantasy candidate for an independent presidential run. Suggesting that the Clintons might have another act on the national stage, POLITICO Primary voter @ChristopherFTL tweeted that the secretary “has the smarts to do the job Obama can’t.” @MarinoBetz said she is “tough, experienced with trouble & won’t quit.” And @Iverson7502 said: “she is just epic :).” The secretary tallied well ahead of second-place finisher David M. Walker, the former comptroller general who has been taking his fiscal-responsibility message to campuses and town halls nationwide. “A fiscal beast!” tweeted Walker voter @MichaelEylerts. Jon Huntsman, a maverick Republican now seeking his party’s presidential nomination, finished third, barely ahead of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was fourth. The vociferous online comments by participants in the POLITICO Primary reflect a hunger on the right and left for a respected figure to step out of the two-party system and become a 21st-century Ross Perot, at a time when voter disgust with Washington institutions is at record levels. Here was the breakdown for the votes cast: 1) Hillary Clinton — 25 percent, 2) David M. Walker — 19 percent, 3) Jon Huntsman — 14 percent, 4) Michael Bloomberg — 14 percent, 5) David Petraeus — 8 percent, 6) Colin Powell — 7 percent, 7) Condoleezza Rice — 7 percent, 8) Mark Warner — 4 percent, 9) Erskine Bowles — 2 percent, 10) John Chambers — 1 percent. Clinton, once a partisan lightning rod, has become one of the most popular and visible members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. She also seems to benefit from Clinton nostalgia, with many voters yearning for the global peace and national prosperity that marked the internally stormy administration of President Bill Clinton. Clinton associates dismissed the idea that one of the nation’s best-known and most popular Democrats would run as an independent. But some of them do not dismiss the notion of her possibly seeking the Democratic nomination in 2016, after she has taken several years to rest, write a book, speak, travel the country and work with a foundation — either her husband’s or one that she starts. When asked about the results, a Clinton associate replied: "Everyone always says, 'Wish Hillary were president.' No one says that about [Sen. John] McCain." Five of the 10 candidates were chosen by POLITICO as opening picks. In the first round of the POLITICO Primary, readers nominated the other five via Twitter. Then online balloting began. Three of the top five finishers— Walker, Huntsman and Bloomberg – were from the readers’ choice group. Clinton and Petraeus (along with Rice, Bowles and Chambers) were POLITICO’s opening picks. One voter, @UrbanMechanic, called the POLITICO Primary “a fanciful yet thought-provoking exercise.”