After all, for the better part of seven years she had been the first lady — Lady Macbeth to most Republicans, Joan of Arc to many Democrats.

Accompanied by revered retiring senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan on his Pindars Corners farm, Clinton walked slowly toward a massive media throng that included yours truly. There was no mistaking the symbolism — the senatorial torch was being passed to a new generation of Democrat.

The national media couldn't get enough of what a big story that was. Evidence of that was as editor of the local newspaper, I was interviewed several times, including two national appearances on MSNBC.

After those golden-throated efforts, I figured I was a cinch to succeed Dan Rather at CBS, but somehow that phone call went to Katie Couric.

Go figure.

So much has changed since that July day in which Clinton began what she called her 'Listening Tour.'

Moynihan died in 2003, after selling his farm to folks from out of state.

Clinton fought off charges of 'carpetbagger' and her husband's shaky popularity to swamp Republican Rep. Rick Lazio in the same 2000 election that brought President Bush to office.

In that pre-9/11 time, we were a nation at peace, with a gallon of gas costing about a buck and a quarter and 'budget surpluses for as far as the eye could see.'

Back in 1999, we really didn't know what kind of senator Hillary Clinton might be. Was she just using New York to run for president in 2004? Could she work with Republicans in the Senate? Would she be more interested in providing for the people of her adopted state of Arkansas than for New Yorkers?

Clinton, who last week received the Democratic Party's unanimous endorsement for re-election, no longer has to worry about anyone calling her a carpetbagger. She has been a fine senator who has paid careful attention to upstate New York issues.

She has reached across the aisle and co-sponsored legislation with Republicans, including some who pushed for her husband's impeachment.

She didn't run for president in 2004.

Clinton, addressing the graduating class at the State University College of Technology at Delhi in May 2001, made it a point to remember where her personal political career began.

'Delaware County has a special significance for me,' Clinton said. 'It was here, on Sen. Patrick Moynihan's farm in Pindars Corners, that I began my journey when I started my listening tour. If you believe in omens, Delaware County is a great place to kick off a journey. I hope it brings you the same rewards it brought me.'

A couple of years ago, I attended a speech she gave at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, she mingled with several of us who wanted to have a semi-private word with her.

When she saw my name tag that said I was from Oneonta, she smiled and asked, 'How's Kim?'

I was impressed that she immediately knew the name of Kim Muller, then-mayor of our small upstate city, and more impressed about how real Clinton was as we chatted. She seemed genuinely interested in how our area was doing economically and mentioned a couple of initiatives she was working on to help.

Clinton is a cinch for re-election, facing only token opposition in the Democratic primary, and in John Spencer or Katherine McFarland, an even more obscure Republican opponent than Lazio in 2000.

It would appear, however, that Clinton, with a $20 million political war chest that will most certainly grow larger and larger, has her cap set on running for president in 2008.

That would be most unfortunate for the Democrats.

There's probably only one thing that could invigorate dispirited Republicans disappointed with the Bush administration, and that is a Hillary Clinton candidacy. It's difficult to think of one 'red' state not captured by Al Gore in 2000 or John Kerry in 2004 that would turn 'blue' for Clinton.

She would enter the primaries with the dreaded 'front runner' tag, and Democrats, desperate to recapture the White House, would be looking for anyone to be an alternative to what would almost certainly be a divisive candidacy of the former first lady.

Ardent liberals, who dominate the Democratic primaries like their conservative counterparts do in the Republican contests, aren't crazy about Clinton these days because of her support for the Iraq war and a flag-burning amendment.

She has the sharpest political strategist in the country in her husband, but that, her high name recognition and weighty piggy bank may not be enough to get her nominated, much less elected president.

Back in 1999, we didn't know what we would be getting in a Senator Clinton. Now that we do know, perhaps it would be best for all concerned if — like Moynihan — she could just be content to remain a highly effective senator from New York.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.