2016 next?

A T about this time five years ago I wrote here about Hillary Clinton's win over Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary election. For three months I continued to support her for the Democrat ticket for the presidency but then had to accept that Obama had the edge. So it was kind of strange on Wednesday to watch Hillary Rodham Clinton giving evidence to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in one of her last appearances as Secretary of State -- and to wonder whether she will be a presidential contender in 2016, by when she will be almost 70. Her three hours of testimony in front of often hostile Republican Senators was almost perfectly judged, conciliatory and feisty as the questions required. The Republicans continue to try to make an issue out of the killing of the US Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi last September even though it proved to be a losing subject for Mitt Romney when he raised it in a campaign TV debate.

Mrs Clinton spoke more strongly than President Obama has done about what she called the “spreading jihadist threat in North Africa” and the need for America to continue to lead in the Middle East, in North Africa and around the world. She has been totally committed to her task as Secretary of State and probably feels she still has even more to offer her country.