For four years, Hillary Rodham Clinton flew around the world as President Barack Obama’s secretary of State, while her husband, the former president Bill Clinton, lived a parallel life of speeches and conferences in other hemispheres. They communicated almost entirely by phone. They were seldom on the same continent, let alone in the same house. 
 
 But this year, all that has changed: For the first time in decades, neither one is in elected office, or running for one. Both are working in the family business, in the newly renamed nonprofit that once bore only Bill’s name but is now called the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which will hold its annual conference in New York next week. 
 
 “We get to be at home together a lot more now than we used to in the last few years,” says Hillary Clinton. “We have a great time; we laugh at our dogs; we watch stupid movies; we take long walks; we go for a swim. 
 
 “You know,” she says, “just ordinary, everyday pleasures.” 
 
 In the world of the Clintons, of course, what constitutes ordinary and everyday has never been either. So the question was inevitable: Given who he is, and who she is, does Bill, among their guffaws over the dogs and stupid movies, harangue her daily about running for president? 
 
 To this, Hillary Rodham Clinton lets loose one of her loud, head-tilted-back laughs. “I don’t think even he is, you know, focused on that right now,” she says. “Right now, we’re trying to just have the best time we can have doin’ what we’re doin’. ” 
 
 There’s a weightlessness about Hillary Clinton these days. She’s in midair, launched from the State Department toward … what? For the first time since 1992, unencumbered by the demands of a national political campaign or public office, she is saddled only with expectations about what she’s going to do next. And she is clearly enjoying it. 
 
 “It feels great,” she says, “because I have been on this high wire for twenty years, and I was really yearning to just have more control over my time and my life, spend a lot of that time with my family and my friends, do things that I find relaxing and enjoyable, and return to the work that I had done for most of my life.” 
 
 Relaxing, for a Clinton, especially one who, should she decide to run, is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in 2016, does not seem exactly restful. The day before we speak, she was awarded the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia—presented by Jeb Bush, another politician weighted with dynastic expectations and family intrigue, who took the opportunity to jest that both he and Clinton cared deeply about Americans—especially those in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. 
 
 Afterward, Clinton stepped backstage, a red-white-and-blue ribbon around her neck pulled taut by a saucer-size gold medal. “It is really heavy,” she said, with that plain-home midwestern tone she deploys when she wants to not appear the heavy herself. In the room with her were some of her close advisers—Nick Merrill, a communications staffer and acolyte of Hillary’s suffering top aide, Huma Abedin; and Dan Schwerin, the 31-year-old speechwriter who wrote all the words she had spoken moments ago. Local policemen with whom Clinton had posed for photos milled about behind her. 
 
 Outside was the usual chorus accompanying a Clinton appearance, befitting her status as the most popular Democrat in America: news helicopters buzzing overhead and protesters amassed across the street who raised signs that read benghazi in bloodred paint and chanted antiwar slogans directly at her as she spoke at the outdoor lectern. 
 
 Though she was officially out of the government, it was not as if she could leave it, even if she wanted to. That week Clinton had met with Obama in the White House to discuss the ongoing Syria crisis, and now Obama was on TV that very evening announcing a diplomatic reprieve from a missile attack on Syria—a series of decisions that Clinton had lent her support to every step of the way. “I’ve been down this road with them,” she tells me the next day. “I know how challenging it is to ever get [the Russians] to a ‘yes’ that they actually execute on, but it can be done. I think we have to push hard.” 
 
 Clinton has taken a press hiatus since she left the State Department in January—“I’ve been successful at avoiding you ­people for many months now!” she says, laughing. She is tentative and careful, tiptoeing into every question, keenly aware that the lines she speaks will be read between. In our interview, she emphasizes her “personal friendship” with Obama, with whom she had developed a kind of bond of pragmatism and respect—one based on shared goals, both political and strategic. “I feel comfortable raising issues with him,” she says. “I had a very positive set of interactions, even when I disagreed, which obviously occurred, because obviously I have my own opinions, my own views.” ||||| She's the picture of presidential ambition. 
 
 Just days after becoming a private citizen, Hillary Clinton is stoking speculation about running for President in 2016 by launching a mysterious new website that boldly features her in an attention-grabbing photo. 
 
 A mass e-mail sent Tuesday by her husband Bill Clinton and their daughter Chelsea is adding to the speculation: It urges recipients to “thank Hillary for making our country and our world, stronger, safer and better.” 
 
 “She inspires us every day — and we hope she inspires you, too. Please take a moment to send Hillary your personal note of thanks,” it adds, providing a link for fans to do just that. 
 
 When Hillary Clinton stepped down Friday after four grueling years as secretary of state, it was assumed that she would relax and recharge while contemplating her next move. 
 
 Her friend Ann Lewis fueled that notion, telling NBC that Clinton would “take some time, put her feet up, take a nap.” 
 
 So much for retirement. 
 
 Clinton receives applause after her last day in office as Secretary of State. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) 
 
 The website and e-mail show that Clinton already has given great thought to the future — and that she wants to keep the option open of running for the White House, political consultants said. 
 
 “These are not the kind of things you do if you want to fade quietly into the night,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. 
 
 “It's a long time between now and 2016,” he added, “and she can use this to create a candidacy, make people think she's creating a candidacy or simply maintain her power. It's a perfect strategic move.” 
 
 The new website emerged with no fanfare. Visitors to HillaryClinton.com, the remnant of campaigns past, were presented with a link directing them to the new address, HillaryClintonOffice.com, which was registered Thursday, 24 hours before Clinton left the State Department. 
 
 Aides did not disclose when Clinton posed for the smiling glamour shot at the new site. Clinton is not wearing the thick glasses she has sported in recent weeks to counter the double vision she suffered as a result of a concussion in December. 
 
 The site also contains a contact form for visitors to fill out — allowing Clinton to add to her already robust mailing list. 
 
 Speculation is running running wild after Clinton launched the new site as people are questioning if she's planning a run to become the leader of the free world. (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images) 
 
 Clinton aides downplayed the site’s significance, insisting that it is simply a way for fans and the media to reach Clinton now that she is out of office. 
 
 The mass e-mail was sent by her husband’s nonprofit foundation to its subscribers. 
 
 Analysts said that even if Hillary Clinton is inclined not to run again, the e-mail and website are smart politically. 
 
 “There is no downside. It’s always good for people to think that you might run,” said Hunter College Prof. Kenneth Sherrill. 
 
 “Should she want to endorse a candidate or ... raise money for a cause she cares about, this is an extraordinary resource. At the very least, it’s a sign she’ll remain active in politics.” 
 
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– New York magazine just dropped a long cover story on Hillary Clinton. We read all 5,934 words and plucked out some highlights: Hillary is "not in any hurry" to decided whether she'll run in 2016. She explains: "It's like when you meet somebody at a party and they look over your shoulder to see who else is there, and you want to talk to them about something that’s really important; in fact, maybe you came to the party to talk to that particular person, and they just want to know what’s next. I feel like that’s our political process right now. I just don’t think it is good." Though one "close confidant" says: "She’s running, but she doesn’t know it yet. It’s just like a force of history. It’s inexorable, it’s gravitational. I think she actually believes she has more say in it than she actually does." The "balance of power" in the Clinton marriage shifted during her time as secretary of State. Bill was "not a presence" in her department, says an aide. "It’s kind of jarring when she says ‘Bill,'" he says. 'Well, who’s Bill? And then you realize that she’s talking about her husband. It happened so infrequently that you were kind of like, Oh, the president." The "biggest question" in Hillary's circle right now is what will happen to Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner's wife and the Hillary's top aide. After Weiner's loss, "Huma has a choice to make," says a "close associate." “Does she go with Anthony, or does she go with Hillary?" What Hillary says she and Bill do at home now they've got more time on their hands: "We have a great time; we laugh at our dogs; we watch stupid movies; we take long walks; we go for a swim." Chelsea Clinton is now Bill's "gatekeeper." After taking over her father's foundation, she "has taken a chain saw to that organization," says a source, and she is overseeing an HBO doco Martin Scorsese is making about him. The article also suggests she might be a potential "shadow campaign manager" for Hillary. Meanwhile, on CNN's Global Public Square this morning, Bill claimed that he had no idea whether Hillary would run in 2016. "I think she would be the first to tell you that there is no such thing as a done deal, ever, by anybody," he said. "But I don't know what she's going to do."