WASHINGTON: With only days left until she steps down as America’s top diplomat, Hillary Clinton left the door open on Sunday to a possible future run in the 2016 presidential elections.

And, in a rare joint interview with CBS, she appeared to win the endorsement of none other than President Barack Obama, the man who beat her in the 2008 race to be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

For months, 65-year-old Clinton has insisted that after more than two decades in the political spotlight she intends to step back into the shadows, catch up on some rest and enjoy some downtime for a change.

But with her popularity riding high — at around 65 per cent according to a Washington Post-ABC poll last week — many believe she will bounce back to take another shot at being the nation’s first woman president in 2016.

“I am still secretary of state. So I’m out of politics,” Clinton told CBS television’s “60 Minutes” carefully, leaving herself the option of reviving her career once she leaves government.—AFP