Hillary 2013 Gives Way to \'Hillary 2016\'

WASHINGTON â€" Hillary Clinton woke up today with no place to go â€" at least in an official capacity.

This must have been something of a shock to someone who has lived in the public arena round the clock for more than 30 years, who has traveled nearly one million miles to 112 countries in just four years, who last week logged more speeches, interviews and farewell gatherings than many presidents and most secretaries of state have done in their last days in office.

But it’s unlikely that newly minted private citizen Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most popular political public figure in the United States (she enjoyed a stunning 67 percent approval rating in the most recent poll) and one of the most admired leaders in the world, will really leave the public stage.

In my latest Female Factor column, I write about the very male, very white Obama administration Mrs. Clinton leaves behind.

As the world knows, many peope think Mrs. Clinton can virtually have the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 if she wants it. These are very, very early days, of course, but it’s still a good bet â€" at least right now â€" that she will get the chance to crack the highest glass ceiling and run for the presidency of the United States.

For now, she might kick back for a minute or two, let her mind unwind and her head recover, but she’s already planning to write a memoir and will surely hop on a plane to globetrot for her signature cause, the advancement of women and girls worldwide.

It’s unlikely, as some opponents might wish, that she will fade into the background, as some former presidents and public figures do once their time in office is up.

But then few of them have had such a sendoff. Mrs. Clinton’s last days in office were a triumphant march, a command performance.

The media gorged on her every move and every word. While policy experts and columnists â€" including here on Rendezvous â€" pointed out that she had no single overarching achievement as secretary of state, most gave her credit for her support of pro-democracy movements in the Arab Spring, her pivotal opening to Asia and strong stands on China, and, of course, her indefatigable work to help women and girls around the world.

The adulation at times knew few bounds. The new issue of Newsweek magazine put her on the cover with a headline that some people found premature, “The Most Powerful Woman in American History.” And Mika Brzezinski, the co-anchor of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said, “Where would all of us be without her”

Overall, media and expert assessments of her tenure at the State Department have been measured, fair and positive. Few questioned her legacy and high stature among secretaries of state.

In the past week, there was her high-wire act before the Senate and House hearings on the kiling of the U.S. ambassador to Libya at Benghazi; her love-fest interview with President Obama on “60 Minutes”; her series of interviews with the five major American networks; and her “Global Townterview” (above and here) on some of the world’s top television networks. She fielded dozens of questions from her seat at Washington’s Newseum. The questions were mostly admiring.

But Mrs. Clinton has long been a global celebrity.

“She is a bold and inspiring woman who has been a messenger and an actor of the great geopolitical challenges of today,” said Veronique Morali, the president of the Paris-based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society.

“During her tenure at the State Department, promoting equal opportunities for women around the world became a mainstream and even a priority agenda item, one that U.S. e! mbassies ! and policy-makers could no longer ignore,” Ms. Morali said in an email.

Here in Washington, Mrs. Clinton is, second only to President Obama, the Democratic Party’s top political commodity. In the past week, progressive advocacy groups like Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign took advantage of the Hillary Farewell Tour to send out promotional emails asking liberal-leaning voters to sign online thank-you cards to Mrs. Clinton.

By week’s end over 170,000 people had responded, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The thank-you signatures for Mrs. Clinton will serve to build the email lists and databases of liberal organizations and the Democratic Party.

Her last hour as secretary of state came on Friday afternoon at her home ground at the State Department. In thick eyeglasses (which she has been wearing since she suffered a concussion and blood clot) and bundled up in a trademark jacket, she spoke standing at the top of a stairway, leanin on a banister, appearing casual and at ease, by turns cheerful and forceful, upbeat and sentimental.

Then she stepped down and plunged into the thick, clamoring crowd. The shout went up, “Hillary in 2016!”

Right then and there, surrounded by fans and eagerly pressing the flesh and mouthing thanks, she found herself at the center of a scene out of a political convention. It didn’t seem so much a final goodbye as the beginning of a new campaign.