US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on Tuesday endorsed a return to the 55 MPH maximum speed limit for "most" of the country during a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Senator Clinton, who is leading in the polls for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, responded to a question about whether she supported the Carter administration's national maximum speed limit.

"The 55 mile speed limit really does lower gas usage, and wherever it can be required and that people will accept it, we ought to do it," Clinton said.

The senator admitted that the move would be too unpopular to implement nationwide. "Well, there are just some parts of the country where that's just not going to happen," she said. "You know, where you've got miles of open, flat road."

"I mean, there are things that can be done. So maybe the trade off is, you know, most of the country where 55 miles an hour doesn't seem like a burden, we have that. In the rest of the country, inflate your tires before you head off into the sunset," Clinton concluded.

A newly elected Republican majority Congress repealed the national 55 MPH speed limit in 1995 over the objection of then-President Bill Clinton after groups like the National Motorists Association demonstrated the law's shortcomings as a "life-saving measure."