After giving his final State of the Commonwealth speech last night, Governor Deval Patrick faced questions about his political future, specifically, whether he would team up with Hillary Clinton for a 2016 run at the White House.

According to the Boston Herald, Patrick emphatically shot down the possibility of a Clinton-Patrick 2016 ticket. “No!” he said, when asked if he had his eyes set on D.C.

Understanding quite well that a Clinton-Patrick ticket would be a reporter’s dream, Patrick acknowledged that “It doesn’t matter” what he says – of course, he’ll probably be asked about this more than once.

In fact, BostInno reached out to Patrick’s office for additional comments. The governor’s press office didn’t offer any additional comments, choosing instead to provide a transcript of an earlier Boston Public Radio interview, with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.

Patrick: ” If you’re asking me if I want to be Vice President of the United States the answer is no.”

Braude: “You don’t?”

Patrick: “No. It’s nice being the boss.”

So, since Patrick likes to run the show, it seems – though politicians have been known to change their minds – being the second most powerful person in the United States isn’t something he’d be down with.

Interestingly, when asked about Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Herald reports, Patrick said he had yet to hear from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder regarding whether the death penalty would be pursued in federal court. However, as we earlier reported, Holder plans to decide whether to pursue the death penalty by Friday. As Governor of Massachusetts, Patrick believes he should be kept in the loop, regarding Holder’s Tsarnaev decision.

When Bill Clinton was in office, Patrick served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Surely, that adds an interesting subtext to the possibility of a Clinton-Patrick 2016 ticket.

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