WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - If Secretary of State Hilary Clinton harbors ambitions to run for president, she is keeping them under tight wraps.
“I
have no earthly idea what she’ll decide to do,” her husband, former
President Bill Clinton, said on CBS television’s “Face the Nation” on
Sunday.
Although
Hilary Clinton went down to defeat to President Barack Obama in a close primary
contest in 2008, she has stayed in the public eye as the president’s top
diplomat. In that role, Clinton, who had been a U.S. Senator from New York, has
built a reputation as a capable stateswoman and a loyal lieutenant to the
president. She is frequently rated as the most popular member of Obama’s
cabinet.
Clinton has
said will step down from her current job whether the president wins re-election
or not.
“She
wants to take some time off, kind of regroup. Write a book,” her husband
said.
However,
she is likely to remain an influential voice and questions about her political
future will persist. Clinton’s support among Democrats is firm, and some had
hoped Obama would boost his re-election chances by replacing the gaffe-prone
Vice President Joseph Biden with her as his No. 2.
While she
has remained generally outside the political fray during this election season,
her husband has seized a prominent role in campaigning for the president’s
re-election. Even so, Hillary Clinton, who was first lady when her husband was
president from 1993-2001, is herself know as one of the Democratic Party’s most
influential and best-networked insiders.
The former
president said that no matter what, there would be a strong crop of Democrats
interested in running for the Oval Office in 2016, including governors and
members of Congress. However, he said that with his wife’s experience in the
White House, where she led an unsuccessful effort to overhaul the U.S.
healthcare system, on Capitol Hill, and in the administration, there would be
no one more qualified than her to run.
“She’s
the ablest, I know I’m biased, but I think she demonstrated as senator and as
Secretary of State that she has extraordinary ability,” Clinton said.
