2016 Presidential Election: Will Janet Napolitano Become First Female President

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano may seek a bid for the Democrat nomination for president in 2016, reports say. The New York City native was elected Attorney General and later Governor of Arizona in 2003. Her experience as a chief executive of a border state led to her appointment to her current post at the Department of Homeland Security by President Barack Obama in 2009.

The Washington Examiner reports that Napolitano "did not rule out" running for president in 2016, as Obama is term-limited. Napolitano is seen as a unique yet strategic choice for some democrats, looking for a way to win crucial red states like Arizona, who in the past have elected a number of successful Republicans such as Gov. Jan Brewer, former Sen. Jon Kyl, Sen. John McCain, and most notably Sen. Barry Goldwater, seen as the founder of the modern-day conservative movement.

However, many say that Napolitano could be a difficult choice for democrats given her occasional propensity for notable gaffes and misstatements. In 2009, she dubbed terrorist attacks "man-caused disasters" in an interview with a German newspaper, which gained her many critics on both sides of the aisle claiming she acted alarmingly casual around the subject of terrorism.

Janet Napolitano later infuriated the Canadian ambassador to the United States when she claimed the Canadian border was just as likely an entry point for terrorist suspects as any other avenue into the US. Possibly her most controversial action was the release of an intelligence report denoting possible "right wing extremism." In the 2009 report, she alleged that returning troops from Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as those concerned about the liberalization of American policy and culture following the election of a Democrat president in Barack Obama. Napolitano later apologized to the veterans organizations who found her report offensive.

"If there's one part of this report that I would rewrite ... it would be that footnote [on the military]," Napolitano said.

While Hillary Rodham Clinton is seen as the most popular choice for the Democratic nomination in 2016, the Washington Post published a lengthy editorial last month saying she would be the perfect non-Clinton female contender.

"Napolitano is a sharp and savvy politician, an her decision to remain in the Obama administration for a second term is a telling one."

The editorial also noted that Janet Napolitano would then be the first cabinet member elected to the presidency since Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was elected in 1928.