Hillary's Next Move - NYTimes.com Somewhere Over South America "Maybe I'll get a decorating show," said Hillary Clinton. It was a few weeks before the election. Clinton was flying back from an overnight trip to Peru, talking - without any great enthusiasm - about the topic that would begin to obsess the American political world as soon as the presidential ballots had been counted: Will Hillary run in 2016? It's more than two months until this inauguration. But the speculation is already roaring. On Friday, Politico reported that Public Policy Polling had a new survey showing that if the Iowa caucuses were held today - there's a terrifying thought - Clinton would get 58 percent of the vote. Joe Biden limped in with 17 percent. Every day, people approach Hillary Clinton and tell her she has an obligation to run and give America its first woman president. "Yes, they do!" she laughs, with the trademark H.C. chortle. Being asked to run for president is a kind of side career all by itself. Clinton gives many variations on the theme of don't-think-so. ("Oh, I've ruled it out, but you know me. Everybody keeps asking me. So I keep ruling it out and being asked.") Also a thousand different forms of beats-me. "I have no idea what I'm going to do next." What she does not do is offer the kind of Shermanesque if-nominated-I-will-not-run language that would end the conversation. Instead, she veers off into a discussion of all the things she'll do when she's no longer secretary of state, and there's time. That led to a mention of her favorite television shows, which are all about house buying and home improvement. Her top pick is "Love It or List It," in which a couple who are unhappy with their current residence gets to look at new houses while a decorator rehabs their old place. The plot arc is always the same, and in a way, it's sort of Clintonesque. The redecorators find termites or a leaky furnace; the house search goes awry. Everybody's upset! But after a lot of hard work and the final commercial, there's a happy ending. "I find it very calming," she said. Clinton sounded relaxed and cheerful in the way of people who are in a good mood despite a severe lack of sleep. She was sitting in the little room that serves as her private space on the secretary of state's plane. It's a modest accommodation for the nation's Traveler in Chief - barely big enough for a table and a small sofa/daybed. You'd think somebody who puts in her kind of hours would get a little plusher ride. During her day in Peru she had given several speeches and multiple TV interviews, toured a textile factory, taken part in a conference on women's empowerment and spent an evening with President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia. "It was a long dinner, but it really was a good conversation," said Clinton earnestly, describing the president, his wife and the other officials she'd talked with, including the Peruvian minister of development and social inclusion, who she termed "very savvy." Clinton is from the personal relationship school of foreign policy. Her approach to day-to-day diplomacy is not unlike the way she found her footing as a candidate for the United States Senate. Remember the listening tours? Lots and lots of listening tours. "So, last night at dinner we sat down and had drinks - there were only like 8 or 10 of us - and we just talked," she said, recounting the evening. When somebody comes along like him who has good values, really does care about what he's talking about, there's no substitute for just time spent one on one in small groups. If Hillary Clinton ran for president again, she would probably be the best-prepared candidate in American history: one who's lived in the White House, served in the United States Senate, a woman who knows virtually every head of state in the world and also has a strong opinion about the merits of the Peruvian minister of development and social inclusion. Joe Biden might arguably come close. But we're not going to talk about Joe Biden until we figure out what Hillary's going to do.