If diplomatic achievements were measured by the number of countries visited, Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the most accomplished US secretary of state in history.
When her plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday morning, the former first lady and America’s top diplomat completed an epic 13-day journey of 43,450 km — 3,220 km more than the earth’s circumference — through and over Europe to Southeast and East Asia and then doubling back to West Asia. One well-travelled Clinton staffer descri-bed the France-Afghan-istan-Japan-Mongolia-Viet-nam-Laos-Cambodia-Egypt-Israel itinerary as “especially absurd, even for us”. But Ms Clinton joked that she was ready for more.
Since 2009, she logged 351 days on the road, travelled to 102 countries and flown a whopping 1,357,964 km. Last month she eclipsed Madeleine Albright’s reco-rd of 98 nations visited, going to Finland for number 99 and then hit the 100 mark in Latvia. After that came Mongolia and Laos.
Ms Clinton tells anyone who asks that she won’t be staying on if President Barack Obama wins a second term. But with her popularity at an all-time high and the Democrats in likely need of a 2016 candidate regardless of whether Mr Obama is re-elected this year, there is widespread speculation that she would find a second stab at becoming America’s first woman President irresistible.
First, though, she’ll need a nap.