Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential Run Likely Unfazed by Recent Health Concerns or Benghazi Controversy

After a month away from the State Department recuperating from a series of maladies, including a blood clot near her brain, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is back at work, and her grueling schedule is unabated.

That schedule may have contributed to her initial illness in December, the resulting fatigue, the fall and concussion that followed. The Washington Post has graphed out exactly how much Clinton works, noting that she has spent a full 87 days just flying between all the locations she has visited as secretary of state in the last four years.

"Clinton, famously, is the best-traveled secretary of state in the office's history, visiting more countries than any predecessor. Her total time on airplanes would come to a staggering 2,088 hours, or about 6 percent of her life as secretary of state. The State Department says that all her travel, including air time, amounts to 401 aggregate days, or 27 percent of her life while in office."

Clinton's staffers greeted her return with applause and a few jokes.

"A crowd of State Department officials greeted Clinton with a standing ovation as she walked in to the first senior staff meeting she has convened since early December," wrote the Wall Street Journal.

"Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, noting that life in Washington is often a 'contact sport, sometimes even in your own home' then presented Clinton with a gift - a regulation white Riddell football helmet emblazoned with the State Department seal."

Her illness and subsequent medical issues are being downplayed. "Doctors for Clinton, 65, have said that she will recover fully," wrote Anne Gearan in the Washington Post. "Her illness nonetheless prompted speculation that she was sicker than her spokespeople let on and that the episode may damage her political future. Clinton has brushed off questions about whether she will run for president in 2016, but she is widely considered a leading Democratic candidate."

American voters tend to prefer a semblance of moderation, and after eight years of Obama, Republicans will be falling over themselves to put their party back in power. And history shows voters will be inclined to let them.

"But Hillary Clinton has the proverbial trump card - namely: gender," wrote Russ Stewart in the Chicago Daily Observer. "She need not run for president as an apologist of the Obama Administration. She need not defend his economic or foreign policies. By resigning as Secretary of State, effective 2013, she separates herself from the president. Apart from the Libya situation, Clinton has been a competent diplomat, visible on the world stage, provoking no wars. Her poll approval ratings, down in the 30s when she was First Lady, are now in the 60s. In 2016, Clinton can concoct her own platform, rejecting and criticizing Obama's failures."

So with three years to go before the next presidential campaign begins heating up, Clinton has plenty of time to bury concerns about her health, and fallout from Benghazi, and paint herself as necessary change and progress.

That's a sentiment many Americans will find hard to resist.