Clinton says she would not accept VP slot

Amid continuous speculation, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she would not accept an invitation to be the Democrats' vice presidential nominee.

"I don't think that will happen. I made it clear I don't want that to happen," she said in an interview this morning on NBC's "Today Show," according to the Drudge Report.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

"What my answer will be, it will be no," she said. "I am not prepared to do that."

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Clinton was asked what advice she would give to the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

"He just has to stick to his strategy about what he believes is best for America," Clinton said. "He has to go out and let the American people get to know him. And he has to not be in any way knocked off course by the ups and downs of the polls or the headline of the day."

In March, Clinton was reported to be in an aggressive campaign to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for vice president.

Columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell referenced sources who said Clinton was using an experienced team of seasoned political operatives to establish her as the top choice for the ticket. According to the columnist's sources, Hillary and former Clinton White House aide Harold Ickes already had amassed a campaign war chest of $100 million.

"Sources have told me that Clinton loyalists have been calling Democrats around the country telling them to prevail on Kerry at least to invite Hillary to be on his ticket," Tyrrell wrote in a March 4 column.

He concluded: "Running as veep on a Kerry ticket might not doom her to second fiddle for eight years. The trial might last only eight months, and if the valiant ticket goes down to the hellish Bush she would be seen as the loyalist of loyal Democrats, a Joan of Arc to her party."

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Tyrrell is author of "Madame Hillary," a book about Clinton's transition from first lady to senatorial power broker.

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