Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, July 27 (IANS) Onetime rival of President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton says she hoped there would a woman US president in her lifetime but doubts she herself would run for America’s top job again.

It was a “daunting” challenge for a woman to run for president, Clinton now secretary of state in Obama’s cabinet told NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme Sunday.

“It will take the right woman who can make the case and win the votes and get elected. I am certainly hoping it will happen in my lifetime.”

Asked what’s it going to take for a woman to be president in the context of an exchange with a Delhi University student during her trip to India she said: “Well, it’ll take the right woman who can make the case and win the votes and get elected. And I am certainly hoping that happens in my lifetime.”

When pressed whether she would run again, she said: “Well, that’s not anything I’m at all thinking about. I’ve got a very demanding and exciting job right now, and I’m not somebody who looks ahead. I don’t know, but I doubt very much that anything like that will ever - ever be part of my life.”

Asked if it reflected a wait and see attitude, Clinton responded with an emphatic “No, no, no, no.”

“Well, I am saying no, because I have a very committed attitude toward the job I’m doing now, and so that’s not anything that is at all on my radar screen,” she said adding, “I have absolutely no belief, in my mind, that that will happen.”

Clinton also declined comment on the presidential prospects for outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was Republican contender Senator John McCain’s running mate in last year’s race. Pressed on whether she thought Palin had the right attributes to be president, Clinton replied: “That is up to the voters to determine.”

“I am just going to leave it at that,” she said. “I do want to see a woman elected. I hope it is a Democratic woman who represents the type of approach that I happen to favour.”

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)