New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is openly encouraging speculation that she will run for president next year, while continuing to deny that she has any interest in throwing her hat into the ring.

In messages posted on Friday to her Web site FriendsofHillary.com, Clinton supporters urged the former first lady to challenge President Bush in the 2004 presidential race.

"I would love nothing more than to see you in the White House - the sooner the better . . . Go get 'em, girl," wrote one Clinton supporter.

Another pleaded, "Please run for president 2004. We need you."

"I hope it is not true that you have decided not to run for president . . . if you do decide for run for president, I want to work on your campaign," said a third.

FriendsofHillary.com is run by the same staffers who manage Sen. Clinton's fundraising political action committee, HILLPAC.

Despite the email on her Web site, Clinton told reporters yesterday that a presidential campaign was not in the works, insisting, "Absolutely, I'm ruling it out."

But in July, she told a BBC reporter who asked if she might take the plunge in 2004, "You never know what might happen."

As chronicled "Hillary's Scheme," the hot new book that lays out the evidence that Sen. Clinton is indeed running for president right now, it wouldn't be the first time the former first lady has broken a promise regarding her political ambitions.

Asked in 1994 if she would ever seek elective office of any kind, Mrs. Clinton issued a similarly Shermanesque response.

"Would she ever run for office herself?" queried gossip maven Liz Smith during a sit-down with Hillary. "She gave a very definite 'NO!'" Smith said.

Speculation about a Hillary 2004 presidential bid heated up earlier in the week when presidential biographer Richard Reeves reported that key Clinton political advisors were set to meet in Sept. 6 to assess the top Democrat's options.

"With Bush looking more vulnerable because there are not enough jobs at home and not enough peace abroad, Sen. Clinton has to check some numbers," he contended. "Hillary and her advisers, including her husband the ex-president, her money men and pollsters, will meet shortly after Labor Day - Sept. 6, I hear - to discuss whether or not she should go for it."

Reeves said the timing of the meeting was prompted by filing deadlines for important upcoming primaries. The New Hampshire filing deadline is Nov. 21.

Key Clinton strategists are already in place should the Democratic frontrunner decide to make it official. Harold Ickes, for instance, served as President Clinton's deputy White House chief of staff and helped organize his 1996 reelection fundraising effort.

At the same time, Ickes worked with Hillary to oversee the Clintons' legal defense fund. In 1999, Ickes returned to New York to mastermind her successful Senate race.

Ickes now serves as a lobbyist for New York's Nassau County under County Supervisor Tom Suozzi, but he was recently put in charge of finding new ways to raise soft money for the Democrats' 2004 presidential campaign.

Another key political ally well positioned for a Clinton presidential run is Terry McAuliffe, who doubles as Democratic National Committee chairman and chief fundraiser for the Clinton presidential library.

After presiding over the Democrats' election debacle last November, most experts believe the only reason McAuliffe wasn't sacked is because the Clintons want him in control of the party when Hillary makes her move.

But it's unlikely McAuliffe could survive in his job if he fails to achieve a victory in next year's presidential race.

If he wins with another Democrat, however, Mrs. Clinton will have to put her presidential ambitions on ice till 2012, when she'll be 65 and nostalgia for the Clinton era will have likely dissipated for Democrats.

The dynamic that makes 2004 Mrs. Clinton's best prospect to achieve her decades-long goal of becoming America's first woman president.

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