All of us face hard choices in life. My hardest was how to find the time to write my presidential election manifesto for 2016. Luckily, Simon & Schuster provided the money and three interns were assigned to remember the thoughts I may have had during my four years as secretary of state.  It was the evening of 5 June 2008, and I was heading to a meeting with Barack Obama – not the one I had hoped for or expected. I'd lost the race to be party leader and he'd won, but now was not the time to dwell on the fact that he had run a particularly unpleasant personal campaign against me and my family. Now was the time to unite the Democratic party for the sake of the United States of America in its time of need.  "I'm not going to kid you," said Barack. "I don't much like you or your husband. But you are dangerous enemies, so I'd like to keep a close eye on you – which is why I am appointing you secretary of state." My first inclination was to sulk and say no, but then I remembered it was my duty to self-serve my country. I talked it over with Bill. Or Billionaire as I sometimes called him in bed. [Nice intimate detail, Hills. More of these, please.] Bill was as supportive as he had always been throughout my career. "It's going to be tough, babe," he said. "But were broke before when I left office, and I don't mind if we're broke again. If I have to cut down my $200,000-per-hour speaking engagements to twice a week, then so be it."  My first assignment was to go to Beijing. I'd noticed China was well on its way to becoming a global superpower, and it was important to let them know there was nothing to fear from relaxing state control. "Just because I live in the world's greatest liberal democracy," I told President Hu Jintao, "doesn't mean I have to mention anything about the Whitewater scandals, Vince Foster, or my husband's inability to keep his pants on." Hu was extremely reassured.  As I flew on to Burma, I decided I couldn't be bothered to use hair conditioner. [Nooo! That's fab, Hills. Gold dust.] The press called me Hillary au Naturel! I loved that, and so did the Burmese women who seemed to instinctively relate to my natural womanliness. The first time I met Aung San Suu Kyi, we were both wearing white dresses, which we agreed was a coincidence. We also agreed that the Burmese military authorities had a long way to go to improve their human rights record! We departed firm friends, and I later sent her a catalogue for Victoria's Secret, for which she thanked me.  Relations with Iraq and Afghanistan have been tricky ever since I voted in favour of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I sometimes felt Barack didn't fully understand how complex the situation really was, but I expect he had a lot of other things to think about. Many nights I laid awake, pondering the best humanitarian solution for the poor, embattled folk of these countries, before launching another drone strike in the morning. These were hard choices, but someone had to make them.  It's been brought to my attention that, if I hope to flog this book in the UK, I ought to include some insights into Brit politicians. [Don't worry, Hills. We're on it. We've just googled David Miliband, and he has a much tighter butt than David Cameron.] I always felt David Miliband was extremely perceptive, and boy did he make my legs go wobbly!  Barack was somewhat naive in welcoming the Arab spring. In hindsight, I'd always felt there was room for things to go wrong, though it was only with great reluctance that I gave the orders to invade Libya. Obviously, I deeply regret the death of the US ambassador in Benghazi, but I acted absolutely correctly given the information available. Any failures were entirely due to military intelligence and Barack not taking matters as seriously as he should have. Though he did have a lot of other things on, so it must have been hard to keep fully abreast.  After Barack was re-elected in 2012, I felt it was time to stand down, because I wanted to spend time with my fabulous husband Bill, of whom I am so proud, and enjoy being a grandparent to Chelsea's child. [Remind me whether it's a boy or a girl. Thanks!] It was only after I had stepped down that I realised I now had time to plan my presidential campaign. Fancy that!  Digested read, digested: Don't order new curtains for the White House just yet, Hills.
John Crace makes some difficult decisions to condense the former US secretary of state's new memoir into a campaign-friendly 750 words