Is Hillary Clinton wading back into political waters?
It's been just over eight months since former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resigned her post and returned to private life with plans to focus on her work at the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. But in recent weeks, the 2008 presidential candidate has shown signs of tiptoeing back into political waters.
She is set to endorse Virginia gubernatorial candidate and longtime Clinton confidante Terry McAuliffe on Saturday, and a few weeks after that she will headline a $15,000 per person Beverly Hills fundraiser for him.
On Tuesday, during a speech to the National Association of Convenience Stores, which was closed to the press, she referenced the fact that that Vice President Joe Biden - one of her 2008 rivals and a potential 2016 foe - had initially opposed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 while describing the operation.
"I became convinced it was a risk worth taking," Clinton said, according to a copy of the speech transcript reviewed by Politico. "And I was joined in that very strongly by Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA. But the Vice President wasn't sold and the Secretary of Defense, who I deeply respect" also wasn't, Clinton said.
It was a brief reference - Biden came up only twice in a twenty-five minute speech, Politico said - but Clinton's words are constantly parsed for meaning because of her potential political future. Speaking to the Long Island Association at the Crest Hollow Country Club earlier this month, Clinton said of a potential second presidential bid, "I am not going to begin to think seriously about it until sometime next year."
Clinton has a slew of nonpolitical events on her calendar. On Wednesday, She was the keynote speaker at an event for a group started by relatives of 9/11 victims called Voices of Sept. 11th. On Nov. 8, she will speak at a gala for the International Medical Corps in Los Angeles. Just before the gala, a super PAC urging her to mount a second presidential bid called "Ready for Hillary" will host a fundraiser in Los Angeles, with many of the same people who are set to attend the gala, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Another stop on Clinton's California trip will take her to the University of Southern California, where she will be honored by the Mexican American Leadership Initiative.