“She has the name recognition, the money, the glitz that goes with all this — she’s got it all,” said Terry McAuliffe, her campaign chairman, in an interview with The Sunday Times. “She has got a great case to make about why she should be president of the United States.”

The race for the Democratic nomination will instantly become Hillary versus the rest. Every other contender, including Barack Obama, the most promising political newcomer, will have to get past her formidable electoral machine for the nomination.

Clinton, 59, still bears the battle scars inflicted during husband Bill’s two terms in office. She will have to contend with the nay-sayers in her own party who wonder whether she is electable. The party left is already pressing her to disown her Senate vote to authorise the war in Iraq.

Yet Clinton’s focus has always been on 2008 rather than on revisiting the past. Slowly but surely she has been altering her image from controversial first lady to experienced senator with a glint of Margaret Thatcher’s Iron Lady image.

Just as Thatcher swept past the doubters to become Britain’s first woman prime minister, so Clinton is determined to make the same historic journey to the American presidency.

“Their policies are totally different but they are both perceived as very tough,” said McAuliffe. “She’s strong on foreign policy. No matter what people say, you still have to check that box on national security. People have got to know you are going to keep them safe.”

From his office a few tantalising blocks from the White House, McAuliffe has the outlines of her strategy mapped out. “It’s going to be a great campaign. It’s going to be wild!” he said.

The gregarious McAuliffe, 49, a legendary fundraiser, will be second only to Bill as Hillary’s most enthusiastic cheerleader. He regards it as his job to inject the fizz and fun into her run.

McAuliffe wants Americans to see the Hillary he knows close up: “They respect her intellect and her toughness, but when they know Hillary better they are going to love her.”

Her frosty image “drives me crazy because she has got a great sense of humour”, he said. “She’s got a great belly laugh. She’s loads of fun. I say, ‘Let her be herself’, and it will come through.”

Looking warm and relaxed in a video on her website, Clinton promised to hold regular online chats with voters, a sign of the internet’s new political reach. “Let’s talk. Let’s chat. The conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don’t you think,” she said.

The timing of her annoucement will enable her to dominate the airwaves in response to President George W Bush’s state of the union address on Tuesday. The Clinton camp is already planning to hang Bush’s failings around the 2008 Republican nominee’s neck.

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