In one of her most candid interviews yet, Hillary Clinton opens up to Barbara Walters as one of Walters’ “Most Fascinating People of 2012.”
After announcing she’ll be stepping down from her position as Secretary of State, Clinton says “all doors are open” for her future.
“It sounds so simple, but I’ve been, as you know, at the highest levels of American and now international activities for twenty years, and I just thought it was time to take a step off… maybe do some reading and writing and speaking and teaching,” Clinton said.
However, when asked to elaborate about her widely speculated presidential run, she insisted to Walters we won’t be seeing any Clinton 2016 posters.
“I’ve said I really don’t believe that that’s something I will do again,” she said. “I am so grateful I had the experience of doing it before.”
At 65, the former First Lady feels like she still hasn’t lost steam.
“I am, thankfully, knock on wood, not only healthy, but have incredible stamina and energy,” she said. “I just want to see what else is out there. I’ve been doing, you know, this, this incredibly important and, and satisfying work here in Washington, as I say, for twenty years, I want to get out and spend some time looking at what else I can do to contribute.”
However, it sounds like her world traveling has taken a toll. As Secretary of State, Clinton has visited 112 countries, spending the equivalent of one year of her life on a plane.
“Being on planes, as you know, as much as I am, takes something out of anybody, doesn’t matter how old you are, or how often you’ve done it,” she admitted.
Politics aside, Clinton also addressed another frequent topic of discussion – her hair.
“It’s fascinating to me how people are so curious about it. Because after a while, it just got to be really burdensome to try to find a hairdresser in some city, somewhere, oftentimes not being able to speak English, that at least I could communicate with,” she told Walters about her shoulder-length hair. “So, I said enough, we’re just going to try to go with as simple as possible.”
Clinton said she is leaving the office feeling immensely proud of what has been accomplished over the last four years.
“When I became secretary, when the president took office, we were in the midst of a terrible economic downturn, but we also were experiencing some very negative attitudes toward our country. People were questioning whether we had the values and principles that had always exemplified America, whether we had the staying power, the economic power to remain the indisputable, indispensable leader that the world needs from us,” said Clinton. “I don’t think there’s any doubt now, and we have gone through enormous difficult changes, but I think everyone knows that the United States and our leadership is to be counted on.”