Hillary Clinton, like Molly Bloom, has opened an exciting phase in her life by saying Yes. Yes, she will run in New York to try and win the seat in the US Senate which Senator Pat Moynihan is giving up next year.
Most people will be puzzled at this as they assumed she has been campaigning since that day last July when she travelled to the Moynihan farm in upstate New York to announce she would be honoured to be his successor. Well, yes and no.
That was the start of her "listening tour". I trailed around after her with hundreds of other journalists while she met selected audiences of teachers, health workers, housewives and farmers.
This was an "exploratory" campaign while she tested the waters and started raising the $26 million she will need in a real campaign against her likely Republican opponent, Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York. He, incidentally, has also been running an "exploratory" campaign.
So you had the curious spectacle of the contenders, in what some predict will be the most ferocious Senate race in a long time, pretending the other didn't exist.
Now the gloves are coming off. And not before time, as far as Mrs Clinton's supporters are concerned. They believed the "listening tour" had gone on far too long, that it was time to appoint a full-time campaign manager and for her to give up "the day job". It was like she was "half-pregnant", joked Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York, one of the first to suggest that Mrs Clinton should run.
Most people scoffed at the idea of her running for the Senate while still in the White House, but those closest to her sensed she was hooked on the idea as her husband's political career was staggering towards an end. Her poll ratings were good and her liberal tendencies would appeal to New York Democrats.
But she has found that being a candidate is a lot different from sorties to New York as the First Lady on an Air Force jet, surrounded by Secret Service agents and a respectful White House press.
The hard-boiled New York reporters would not let "Hil", as they nicknamed her, off so easily. She began to commit gaffes which the Giuliani camp exploited. Her poll ratings slipped and the official trip to Israel this month which was meant to strengthen her standing with Jewish voters in New York turned into a disaster. She sat silently through a diatribe by the wife of Yasser Arafat accusing the Israelis of using poison gas against Palestinian women and children.
Belatedly, Mrs Clinton distanced herself from Mrs Arafat's charges, but now Mr Giuliani's supporters have a TV ad running which shows Mrs Clinton embracing Mrs Arafat at the end of her speech.
As Mrs Clinton embarked on another foreign trip with the President to Europe last week, there were increasing rumbles from Democrats in New York that she should withdraw from the Senate race and that this was "a very risky candidacy". Even her loyal supporters expressed concern that she was neglecting her campaign.
This week Mrs Clinton got the message. While her husband and daughter, Chelsea, were flying back from Europe, Mrs Clinton was in New York at a meeting of a teachers' union. "Is it yes or no?" asked Ms Randi Weingarten, head of the United Federation of Teachers.
This had the air of careful stage management. A bigger than usual press contingent from the US and abroad were there to hear her answer. "The answer is yes," the First Lady said with a big smile. "I intend to run."
So now her hat is definitely in the ring. There will be the "formal announcement" with balloons and hoopla early next year, but there will no longer be references to "listening tours" and "exploratory" campaigns.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is moving out of the White House and into her villa with swimming pool in Westchester County. "Obviously I will be still in Washington from time to time. I have to be," she told the press.
What did this mean for her marriage? wondered the ever inquisitive media. No other First Lady had actually moved out of the White House even if Jacqueline Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt had hideaways in the countryside or Manhattan.
Marsha Berry, the First Lady's press secretary, moved to quash the rumours that she might be "dumping" the President. They both made it clear the new house would be their future home. Ms Berry insisted: "She does not intend to exclude him. It just means she will be spending a lot more time up there."
Paul Begala, a former White House adviser, was even blunter. "My experience of the First Lady is that she means what she says. If she meant to say `I'm dumping him', she'd say `I'm dumping him'," he said.
As far as the President is concerned, he certainly is not being dumped. "I think we'll have to make accommodations" is the way he put it while claiming that he had urged her to "clear it up" as the doubts increased about her seriousness in running.