Although things could still change, it seems increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton’s campaign days are numbered. As such, it means she’ll soon have to give up the jet-setting campaign circuit to return to the “meandering Senate”–an adjustment some say will not be easy for the junior senator.

While she has received millions of votes, stirred thousands of Americans at rallies, made hundreds of appearances and is just scores of delegates short of her goal, defeat would still return her to the Senate as No. 36 out of 49 Democrats.

But the seniority arithmetic is only the beginning. There is also the personal challenge of returning to a club where more Democratic members favored Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and spurned her. Though the Senate is a place where rival lawmakers daily work side by side, this family feud was more public and fierce than usual.

And yet,

… a case can be made that her campaign has strengthened her Senate hand. She is now an even more firmly established national figure in her own right, with a defined and substantial following, one of the few in the Senate who can make that claim.

Her standing will enable her to command attention even though she might lack a clear Senate platform. She will be sought as a campaign resource (and, should she choose to settle scores, can shun requests from those who did not help her).

“Anyone who thinks she will return to the body in a weakened condition does not understand the nature of politics,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close ally of Sen. John McCain, who is proof that losing a presidential primary race is not the end and can even be the beginning.

If Clinton loses the Democratic presidential nomination, is this the end of the road for her politically, or only the beginning?