Is Hillary planning to run for president in 2016 ?

Speculation is rife that Hillary Clinton may run for the US president's office in 2016, as her husband Bill is back on the campaign trail -- offering thanks to those who backed her in 2008 against Barack Obama, a media report said.

According to Britain's The Daily Telegraph, former President Bill Clinton has been laying the foundations for the Secretary of State's try in 2016, by campaigning for Democratic politicians who helped his wife Hillary run for the president's office against President Obama two years ago.

In fact, Bill, now a globe-trotting philanthropist, went to Española, New Mexico, the site of the first European colony in America, last week to campaign for Diane Denish, the Democratic candidate for the governor. Denish had supported Hillary against Obama in 2008 and Bill was back to repay the debt; he made crystal clear who he was representing on the campaign trail --

and it wasn't Obama,the report said. "I planned to do about one stop for everybody that helped Hillary run for president because she's one of only two members of the president's cabinet who cannot participate in politics," he told a gathering of 4,000 people.

As Secretary of State, he reminded people,Hillary is not permitted to campaign. "Then I got out here and started stirring around and realised that a lot of people were mad and even more confused and I didn't want it on my conscience so I just loaded up and started strolling around," Bill said.

Bill's energetic reappearance on the campaign trail comes just as rumours, some of them eagerly fuelled by the Clinton camp, swirl that Hillary might replace the hapless Joe Biden as Obama's vice-presidential running mate in 2012 or even challenge the President for the Democratic nomination if his popularity continues to slide.