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THE sun may not have shone on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her visit to Dublin yesterday, but she still received a very warm welcome.
The Clintons are popular figures here and seen as loyal friends. Once First Lady to Bill's Mr President, we have seen her profile grow and flourish since she first entered the White House at her husband's side in 1992.
Often a power behind the throne during the Clinton years on Pennsylvania Avenue, she went on to fulfil her own political ambitions when elected to the Senate for New York state in 2000.
Never afraid to court controversy, she found herself on the wrong side of the argument on the war in Iraq, which temporarily alienated some of her Democratic base.
But this didn't stop her seeking the party's nomination in the 2008 presidential race. After an epic, and often brutal, battle against Barack Obama, she lost out,
This was a bitter disappointment.
But she surprised the political world, and not least her own supporters, by accepting the incumbent's invitation to become his Secretary of State.
In that role she has been an outstanding success, rebuilding the United States' tattered reputation in the wider world after eight years of Bush Republicanism and disastrous unilateralism.
But it seems the story won't end there either.
Although now in her mid-60s, Hillary Clinton is known to be relentlessly ambitious and many hope, and believe, that she will again seek the elusive Democratic nomination for the presidency when it comes around next time.
She could well point to the fact that John McCain fought a decent fight for the White House when closing in on his 70th birthday and, indeed, Ronald Reagan came into his own, on the world stage, as a septuagenarian.
Only time will tell if that is, indeed, her ambition and – if it is – whether or not she'll succeed.
But Hillary Clinton can at least be assured that no matter what the future may bring, she will always find a sun-blessed welcome here.
Irish Independent
