If not World Bank, where’s Hillary Clinton heading post-2012?

“Let me address this as definitively as I can, on the record ... The story is completely untrue, said Philippe Reines, Clinton aide and deputy assistant secretary of state.

Earlier, a Reuters report that said Clinton would be interested in the presidency of the World Bank once it becomes vacant in the latter part of 20102 had sent the world media into a tizzy.

Reines affirmed that the story was bogus, that Clinton has absolutely no interest in a World Bank job and that she hasn’t had any talk with President Obama on her plan to pursue the World Bank post.

Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, also said the story was completely untrue. So that's been a forceful rebuttal both from Clinton and the White House.

If not running the World Bank, what will Hillary Clinton do after she steps down as Secretary of State? Would she be Obama's Vice-President? Or Defense Secretary? Or will she be gathering herself for yet another White House bid in 2016? Or indeed, a race as early as 2012?

No one thinks it's plausible that a person of her talent and ambition will fade away from public life.

She said in March she had no plans to run for White House again, that she would not want to become the vice-president and that she was not interested in the job of defense secretary.

She had rather hinted that the current job will be her last in the government. I am doing what I want to do right now and I have no intention or any idea even of running again ... I'm going to do the best I can at this job for the next two years, she had told CNN in March.

And there isn't anything that I can imagine doing after this that would be as demanding, as challenging or rewarding, she said.

Speculation of a wilder nature too had been set off by Clinton's abrupt announcement that she would not serve another term in the Obama administration. Some suggested that she probably had plans to run against Obama in 2012.

Is that because she intends to pursue a Clinton administration in 2012?, wrote Andy Ostroy in Huffington Post.

He argued that the apparent bonhomie between Obama and Clinton doesn’t say the whole story. It was and is a marriage of convenience, and one that is likely full of residual contention and resentment from 2008, he wrote.

A Gallup poll in April had shown that Clinton's popularity had reached an all-time high. Her favorable rating among Americans rose to 66 per cent from just 61 per cent in July 2010. She was more popular than the President and the vice-president.

It was also reported that Clinton was unhappy with Obama's alleged leadership failure during the Arab crisis. Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,' the Daily Mail quoted a source as saying.

But most people think Clinton doing a McCarthy is still a long shot.