Is There a "Hillary 2012"?
Conceivably, she could be simply getting ready for a 2016 presidential bid, but that's an awfully long way off to be maintaining a political staff of eight. She's already gotten her debt cleared up.
Could it be that Hillary harbors a hope (or, at least a suspicion) that the politics of "hope and change" (and inexperience) could be wearing a bit thin three years from now? Of course, she'll have to walk a very narrow tightrope to make it work, but might she not use her State Department post to clear up any residual concerns about her ability to manage a large operation, and then resign "on principle" after some particularly softheaded Obama foreign policy gives her an opportunity to stake out a position just slightly to his right, proving her toughness and attempting to marginalize him on the far left?