Hillary to Pull Out of '08 Race?

Although she's not officially a candidate for president in '08, conventional wisdom is the Hillary Clinton will run and will be the frontrunner right from the start. However, a London Times report suggests that Hillary might give up on the presidential bid and decide to go for Senate Dem leader instead:

FRIENDS of Hillary Clinton have been whispering the unthinkable. Despite her status as the runaway frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, some of her closest advisers say she might opt out of the White House race and seek to lead her party in the Senate.

The former first lady longs to return to the White House with husband Bill as consort. Only last week she told television viewers America would be led by a woman one day. “Stay tuned,” she said.

First, however, she has to win the election. Some Democratic party elders — the American equivalent of the Tories’ “men in grey suits” — say Clinton may back out of the race of her own volition.

“I would not be surprised if she were to decide that the best contribution she can make to her country is to forget about being president and become a consensus-maker in the Senate,” said a leading Democratic party insider. “She believes there is no trust between the two political sides and that we can’t function as a democracy without it.”

I don't think this decision, if made, will have anything to do with her "best contribution to her country", because the Clintons never do anything for any reason other then their own self interest. However, she may be coming to realize that she could win the Dem nomination but have a difficult if not impossible task of winning the general election. If she stayed in the Senate she could probably be a far more effective leader than Harry Reid and could gain the attention she desires without the risk of losing an election.