Hillary Clinton jokes about 2016 speculation

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has steadfastly denied that she plans to run for president in 2016, but on Thursday she joked about the mounting speculation.

At a conference co-sponsored by the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, Clinton made the veiled reference while paying compliment to Jake Sullivan, the office's director.

“I told my husband about this incredibly bright rising star – Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law School – and my husband said, ‘Well, if he ever learns to play the saxophone, watch out,' " Clinton told the crowd, according to The Washington Post. "“Now we travel all over the world together and people say how excited they are to meet a potential future president of the United States — and of course they mean Jake."

Clinton, who plans to step down as secretary of State at the end of President Obama's first term, has repeatedly denied her interest in mounting another presidential campaign.

Last month, she told Marie Claire magazine that while she would be "up there cheering" for the first female president, that candidate would not be her.

"I have been on this high wire of national and international politics and leadership for 20 years," she told the magazine. "It has been an absolutely extraordinary personal honor and experience. But I really want to just have my own time back. I want to just be my own person. I'm looking forward to that."

Still, polls conducted earlier this month by Public Policy Polling showed Clinton would easily be the favorite to sew up the Democratic nomination, with the secretary of State leading contenders like Vice President Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in early voting primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida.

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