cracking wise

PHILADELPHIA was a front-runner to host the Democratic National Convention this year, but Mayor Nutter, concerned about the city’s budget troubles, dragged his feet in 2010 and then declined to bid for the event.

Nutter is now cautiously optimistic about holding a Democratic convention in Philly in 2016.

He dodged when asked on MSNBC Thursday morning to speculate about presidential candidates four years from now.

Instead, Nutter offered: “Well, when you want to talk about 2016, you might want to think about Philadelphia, 2016, DNC.”

Nutter, fresh from the stage after a convention speech Thursday night, said that applications for the next convention won’t be submitted until 2014.

“At the moment, certainly the potential of hosting the 2016 convention is something that I would be very interested in exploring,” Nutter told Clout. “We are much, much too early in the process.”