Win or lose, Hillary Clinton just goes from strength to strengthDefeat by Barack Obama was supposed to signal a return to the Senate: instead, Hillary Clinton has become a high-profile secretary of state, and is being tipped for the vice-presidency in 2012 and the White House in 2016Paul Harris The Observer, Sunday 13 December 2009 Article historyThe rumour was compelling, even by the high-octane standards of Washington DC. Vice-president Joe Biden would step down in two years' time, allowing Hillary Clinton to join the Democrats' presidential ticket in 2012. Then, after serving with Barack Obama through his second term, Clinton would be all set to win the White House in 2016.The gossip spread like wildfire through the cocktail parties of Washington, into the blogosphere and then into the mainstream press, where New York magazine, National Public Radio and the cable news channels all picked up on it. The dream of Clinton becoming America's first woman president was suddenly alive again.But the true importance of the rumour lay not in its details, but in its very existence. Eighteen months ago, smarting from defeat by Obama's upstart campaign, such a political rebirth would have been unthinkable. There had been undeniable bitterness between the two camps. The Democratic party had been divided. Two such colossal figures could never work together, let alone prosper. Clinton, in short, would return to the Senate and continue the loyal, dogged work of drawing up legislation and ease into history as an elder stateswoman.But the past year has seen a remarkable rejuvenation of Clinton as secretary of state. She has reinvented herself as a highly…

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