WASHINGTON, 30 September 2003 — She has denied it, and denied it again, and still the Washington rumor mill persists in speculating: Is Hillary Clinton planning a run for the White House in 2004?

The crowded field of Democrats running for the White House already stands at 10, and Clinton tried again this past week to squelch suggestions that she intended to become presidential contender number 11.

“I’m not running,” she said at a breakfast with political reporters. When asked whether anything could convince her to change her mind, she shook her head and said firmly: “No.” That answer has not put an end to the speculation, however. The rumors are fueled in part by Democrats wistful for the era that ended in 2000, when Hillary’s husband Bill Clinton left the White House.

Many stalwart Democrats feel convinced that incumbent Republican President George W. Bush can be defeated if a challenger with enough star power goes up against him, and point out that Hillary continues to have the best poll numbers of any Democrat around.

A Newsweek survey this month showed her to be the preferred choice of 33 percent of Democratic voters, far higher than any Democrat in the race. Another poll — taken for Quinnipiac University before retired army general Wesley Clark entered the race — found that Clinton would win the support of 45 percent of Democrats, more than the nine other candidates combined.

If she were to change her mind and seek the White House, Clinton would have to break a promise made to residents of New York state while on the campaign trail in 2000 that if elected to the US Senate she would serve out her full six-year term — one major disincentive to seeking the presidency in 2004.

And she would also have to devise a strategy for countering the barbs of all of her detractors — and they are legion, particularly among core Republicans — who would move heaven and earth to prevent a return of the Clintons to the White House. Hillary has her husband to blame, in part, for the fact that she is having to spend so much time denying presidential ambitions. Recent remarks by former President Bill Clinton seemed to leave the door open for a Hillary presidential candidacy when he told a California audience earlier this month, “that’s really a decision for her to make.” Conspiracy theorists also have gotten into the act, promoting a hypothesis that Wesley Clark, a longtime Clinton associate, entered the race as a sort of a place holder for Hillary, who will make her own bid later in the election season after he has bumped off all the early Democratic challengers.