The New 'Comeback' Clinton: From Rival to U.S. Cabinet

Nov. 21, 2009 — -- At the start of the Obama administration nearly one year ago, many wondered how Hillary Clinton -- former first lady and former Obama rival -- would adjust to her new role as secretary of state.

Just a few months ago, Clinton fended off whispers around Washington that she was being sidelined as secretary of state amid an administration full of foreign policy experts and a statesmanlike-president popular abroad.

But a close-up profile in Vogue magazine's forthcoming December issue portrays a content Clinton who seems to have come to terms with her role.

In a 10-page article by Jonathan Van Meter, Clinton talks candidly about how she came to accept her position as the secretary of state, the translation gaffe in Africa last summer, and her thoughts about being a woman and role model.

Since becoming secretary of state, Clinton has shied away from talking about her political future, shooting down any suggestions she is interested in running for the presidency in 2012, or for New York governor in 2010, or is otherwise unhappy working under her former 2008 presidential campaign arch-rival.

But in a Vogue interview, Clinton explains how she almost did not accept the secretary of state job offer: "I did not think it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to do it. I just really had a lot of doubts, and I kept suggesting other people: Well, how about this person! How about that person! This one would be really good! But then a friend of mine called me and basically said, 'How would you have felt if you'd been elected and you'd called him and asked him to do this?' And that really made a big impression on me. How do you say no? And so ... I said yes. And here I am."