Clinton uses book tour to test waters for White House run

Hillary Clinton speaks during a book signing of her new book "Hard Choices" in New York June 10, 2014. The book, Clinton's fifth with publisher Simon and Schuster, will give the former secretary of state a chance to shape the debate about her record in the Obama administration, and reintroduce herself to voters as she tours the country. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - With a high-profile book tour this week, Hillary Clinton is looking to define herself as a foreign policy pragmatist who is willing to chart a different course from that of President Barack Obama.

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The reception Clinton gets is likely to help her decide whether to launch a bid to be elected the first woman US president. Polls show she is the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination should she run.

Clinton says she will make up her mind about a presidential run after the November congressional elections, though many Democrats think she will run. Those close to her say the book tour will help her decide.

"I think essentially this is to gauge what the reaction is to the book and gauge what the reaction is as she tours the country," said a Clinton associate.

The tour allows her to "get her toe in the water without drowning," the associate said.

Clinton - a woman whose every move, from her hairstyle to her pending status as a grandmother, is watched with an unsparing eye - will use the book tour to shift the conversation to her foreign policy record.

The book, titled "Hard Choices," hits bookstores on Tuesday.

The tour, with stops in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington this week, puts her in the public spotlight in a more intensive way than at any time since she resigned as secretary of state early in 2013.

Clinton loyalists believe the book will show her to be a foreign policy pragmatist during what she considers to be the most successful period of her political life.