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Washington Stop the servers! Hillary Clinton is going to announce whether she is going to run for president on Jan. 1, or shortly thereafter.

Or maybe later than shortly thereafter. This bears watching, as time will tell.

OK, were being a bit snarky there, but when it comes to the former Secretary of State and a possible try for the White House even a vague bit of new semi-specificity can make news. And the US political world is chattering today about the hint Hillary dropped in Mexico during an appearance at a charity event.

Asked several times if she planned to run, Clinton said, I am going to be making a decision around probably after the first of the year.

Immediately the mediasphere was full of posts with heads like Hillary says will announce around January 1. Which is a true statement, given her words.

But . . . is this new? Shes said in the past she wouldnt announce until next year. Now shes saying that she wont announce until at least the day after the next year begins. Or around after then, which could be November, depending on your definition of around.

We agree completely with political scientist Jonathan Bernstein, who thinks all this coyness on the part of candidates is a mask over their true attitudes.

Clinton is running for 2016 already, and has been since she quite the State Department, Bernstein writes today. Whats she really saying with todays announcement is that sometime next year she might surprise everyone and say shes dropping out of a pre-presidential contest shes already engaged in.

There are good legal and strategic reasons for this. Campaign-finance laws discourage an early start, for one. Coyness freezes intra-party competition, as possible rivals such as Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley cant poach donors or activists whose first choice is Clinton. It shortens the glad-handing campaign grind.

Nor is she the only one doing this. On the GOP side, everyone from Rand Paul to Rick Perry is popping up to New Hampshire just to pick up some maple syrup and maybe meet a few voters. As Bernstein says, what everybodys running for is to remain viable into 2016, when primary voting starts.

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Hillary Clinton says she'll decide on 2016 around January 1. Maybe.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton have dueling opinion pieces about foreign policy in The Washington Post on Friday, but neither former presidential candidate appeared to take a stand on the current debate dominating the foreign policy arena: how to deal with ISIS.

Reviewing former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's book "World Order," Clinton writes that she and President Barack Obama share a similar world view as Kissinger, one that's rooted in "a belief in the indispensability of continued American leadership in service of a just and liberal order."

Showing off its crimes: How ISIS flaunts its brutality as propaganda

Clinton, who's thinking about another run for president in 2016, argues that what makes the country a leader is not only its military strength but its "soft power" -- its values, relationships and diplomacy. She likes to call it "smart power."

While she doesn't mention the emerging crisis related to ISIS, she writes, "it's time for another of our great debates about what America means to the world and what the world means to America."

"We need to have an honest conversation together -- all of us -- about the costs and imperatives of global leadership, and what it really takes to keep our country safe and strong," the Democrat writes.

Romney, in his op-ed, argues that the dominating force that keeps the U.S. on top is its military strength and that one can't equate that with soft-power values. Widely seen as the GOP's party elder, Romney warns that decreasing military budgets can lead to disastrous outcomes.

"The most ludicrous excuse for shrinking our military derives from the president's thinking: 'Things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, 25 years ago or 30 years ago.' The 'safer world' trial balloon has been punctured by recent events in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Iraq," the 2012 GOP nominee writes.

" 'Failures of imagination' led to tragedy 13 years ago; today, no imagination is required to picture what would descend on the United States if we let down our guard," he continues.

Excerpt from:
Romney, Clinton debate Obama's crisis management in dueling op-eds

Hillary Clinton #39;s `Hard Choices
July 18: In this excerpt, part two of Charlie Rose #39;s conversation with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her book is called "Hard Choices." It is the story of her time...

By: Bloomberg News

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Hillary Clinton's `Hard Choices - Video

Blake Clark Give The Bitch A Chance On Presidency
We asked Blake Clark, actor on a TON of Adam Sandler movies, if he thinks Hillary Clinton is a good candidate for Presidency. He answers with what he think should be her campaign slogan!

By: TMZ

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Blake Clark Give The Bitch A Chance On Presidency - Video

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the National Clean Energy Summit 7.0 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Sept. 4, 2014, in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Last Updated Sep 4, 2014 9:45 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton predicted Thursday the United States will become the leading 21st century "superpower" in clean energy if the nation confronts the "most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face."

"We shouldn't have to state the obvious ... the data is unforgiving" in demonstrating that climate change and environmental crises are at hand, Clinton said at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

Waving off a passionate sector of Americans who believe otherwise, she cited melting ice caps and the discovery of "carbon dioxide in our atmosphere not seen in millions of years" as evidence of potentially disastrous climate change.

"The threat is real - but so is the opportunity," Clinton said.

"If we come together to make the hard choices, the smart investment in infrastructure, technology and environmental protection, America can be the clean energy superpower for the 21st century," she added.

The speech, which yielded little news but drew impressive audience numbers and hefty national media coverage, was a safe bet for Clinton on all fronts. It offered the 2016 Democratic presidential early frontrunner a chance to plug her book, "Hard Choices," her work as secretary of state and the Clinton Global Initiative. She was also squarely among friends.

Clinton was introduced by her longtime cohort and former colleague, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who largely orchestrated the event. And she concluded her remarks with a Q&A moderated by longtime family adviser John Podesta, who's rumored to top a shortlist of contenders to chair her White House campaign should she mount one.

Coincidentally, though, the summit's timing pitted Clinton in something of an unplanned head-to-head against a potential 2016 Republican rival. Just 24 hours earlier, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delivered before a crowd in Mexico City a strongly conservative approach for how to seize on "the North American energy renaissance."

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Hillary Clinton urges U.S. to become clean energy "superpower"