MANAMA, Bahrain — Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that U.S. secretary of state will be her final public position, seeming to close the door on speculation that she would run for president or take another post in the Obama administration.
“I think I’ll serve as secretary of state as my last public position and then probably go back to advocacy work, particularly on behalf of women and children, and particularly around the world because if you look at what is still happening to women in many parts of the world it is tragic and terrible,” she told a Bahrain TV interviewer.
The interviewer began by asking if she planned to run for president.
“No, I do not,” she said.
She then launched into a detailed review of her career, noting that she began as an advocate for neglected and handicapped children.
“I’ve had a fascinating and rewarding public career,” she said, recounting her time with the Children’s Defense Fund, her years in Arkansas, in the White House as first lady and in the Senate. She then said her present position would be her last in government.
Some had speculated she might succeed Robert Gates after his expected retirement next year as secretary of defense, or run as President Barack Obama’s vice presidential candidate in 2012.