Hillary Plotting 2012 Strategy?

Sure could be. I floated the idea a while back suggesting she'd announce her plans to run on January 21, 2009, right after John McCain is sworn in.

And you never know considering the way The Anointed One is stumbling in the polls of late.

IT sure looked like Hillary Rodham Clinton was plotting her political future at a secret ladies-only dinner in Washington the other night.

The New York senator was guest of honor at Tuesday's hush-hush powwow that raised speculation about a possible White House run in 2012. The gathering was hosted by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and attended by Ellen Malcolm, founder of Emily's List, which supports pro-choice, female Dems; Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), chair of the New Democrat Coalition; and Hilary Rosen, former Recording Industry Association of America CEO, who's now political director of the Huffington Post.

A source tells Page Six they all met for dinner at Charlie Palmer Steak, a chophouse noted for its cellar of 10,000 bottles of wine and spectacular views of the Capitol.

"You could say Hillary met with her homegirls. They're all very powerful and important women," our insider said. "It's highly unlikely they were plotting anything around the VP spot because Hillary knows Barack Obama isn't going to pick her. They were probably planning her future."

Good timing, of course, since the group pushing an Obama-Clinton ticket has shut down.

An effort to urge Barack Obama to pick former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate is shutting down under the assumption she is not a contender for the No. 2 spot.

The two former Clinton staffers who started the group Vote Both say Obama's decision to offer Clinton a prime-time speaking role at the Democratic Party nominating convention and other signals suggest Obama will not chose her.

I think that was a foregone conclusion, and it certainly didn't help when Obama's good pal called her a bitch for the whole world to hear.

Mrs. Clinton is a political animal and will never take her humiliating primary defeat in stride. She wants revenge and there indeed will be hell to pay for those who get in her way the next time around.

As usual, she and Bill are still keeping financial secrets, which means to me they're still on the playing field.