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Hillary Clinton formally announces 2016 run
The inevitable has come to pass.... Hillary is running for president. Plenty of democrats think that with Hillary running that she is assured a win and will be the first female president.... I've been saying for awhile though that I don't think its going to be the cake walk that these democrats want to think its going to be. She has plenty to overcome to make it to the oval office. There will be people that are going to vote for her simply because her last name is Clinton and of course those tend to be the low information voters. When a honest person takes a look at the candidates and is looking at Hillary and the first question is 'can I trust her?', that should be the first inclination that she probably isn't worth the vote. When you throw in all of her baggage, both old and new, a open minded person should be able to clearly see that Hillary is simply more of the same old kind of politician that is the biggest part of the problem in DC.
At this point I'm not overly at any of the candidates that have officially announced, a few of them make some fair points but I am not planning to run out and vote for any of them as of yet.
Her campaign makes a great effort to take the focus off her.
Updated 4/13/15 11:21 AM EDT
Hillary Clinton on Sunday formally announced her second run for the White House with a digital blitz that portrayed her as a champion of everyday Americans.
In striking contrast to her 2008 presidential bid, Clinton’s campaign took great effort to take the focus off her. In her two-minute announcement video, Clinton doesn’t even appear until the 1:35 mark.
Instead, the video captured messages central to her campaign by featuring regular Americans starting new phases of life: a mother going back to work after years spent raising her kids; a young woman applying for her first job after college; two Spanish-speaking brothers starting their own business together; two men getting married.
The announcement marks an end to the first, awkward phase of Clinton’s roll-out — a non-campaign that has frustrated Democrats who were anxious for her to turn the ignition switch on a presidential run that the party is deeply invested in.
Clinton is the first candidate in the thin Democratic field to formally announce a 2016 run, and is unlikely to face any real challenge until the general election.
She is under intense scrutiny, however, to show that she has learned lessons from her unsuccessful prior run, in which she was seen as out-of-touch with middle-class sensibilities. Her launch video for her 2008 bid only featured Clinton, sitting on her couch in her Chappaqua mansion, telling voters: “I’m in, and in to win.”
On Sunday, the tone was different. “Everyday Americans need a champion. I want to be that champion,” she declared on her campaign website. The campaign also put up a fresh Facebook page, featuring personal pictures of Clinton and her family, and a timeline dating back to her birth.
Clinton is following up the digital launch by hitting the road in Iowa this week — she’ll do small events in the towns of Monticello and Norwalk on Tuesday and Wednesday, the campaign confirmed Sunday. The soft launch also means Clinton won’t formally hold a political rally or give a campaign speech until May.
For the past year, the former secretary of state has been treated like a candidate while lacking the structure around her to support one. That has led to some rusty moments as Clinton has sometimes painfully re-entered public life, outside of the State Department’s protective bubble.
The missteps began on her high-profile international book tour. When pressed during an interview with Diane Sawyer last June about why she was spending her time delivering highly paid speeches, Clinton delivered a tin-eared answer: She said that she and President Bill Clinton were “dead broke” when they left the White House.
Clinton — who has raked in more than $5 million on the paid speaking circuit since leaving Foggy Bottom and earned a reported $14 million advance on her latest book deal — admitted later that she regretted the comment and that it was “inartful.” But it fueled an emerging GOP storyline that she is out of touch with ordinary Americans.
She was the subject of bruising headlines again last month after the New York Times reported that Clinton had relied solely on a private email server during her tenure at the State Department. Supporters were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn’t hiding official documents. But they were less forgiving of her clunky response.
“It took eight days to provide a pretty straight forward simple answer,” said one Clinton insider, referring to her press conference at the United Nations, where she finally addressed the issue. “All of us thought, why didn’t you give that [answer] a day and a half after?”
Other Clinton backers considered the past year a useful proving ground. “She was bound to be rusty,” one insider said. “She’d been insulated and protected.”
Clinton’s time on the paid speaking circuit has enabled her to hone a campaign stump speech: in recent months, she has been highlighting her decades-long record fighting for women’s rights and supporting equal pay and legislation like paid sick leave. The speeches, in controlled environments filled with supporters, have provided Clinton with the opportunity for a soft launch before entering the fray.
As expected, Clinton’s formal entrance into the race immediately unleashed Republican attacks. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is expected to launch his own campaign in the coming weeks, released a video Sunday morning linking Clinton to Obama’s presidency.
“We must to do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy that has damaged relationships with our allies and emboldened our enemies,” Bush said. “Better than their failed, big-government policies that grow our debt and stand in the way of real economic growth and prosperity.”
Senator Rand Paul, another Republican presidential contender, also jumped in, jabbing at both Clinton’s use of private email and the foreign money that has freely flowed to the Clinton Foundation. “It’s going to be hard for her to say she’s for women’s rights when she’s accepting money from sort of stone-age sort of regimes that really abuse the rights of women,” said Paul on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
She faces some skepticism from the left, too, for her perceived closeness to Wall Street and her husband’s deregulatory moves during his presidency. On Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive who managed Clinton’s successful 2000 Senate campaign, declined a chance to endorse her.
“Like a lot of people in this country, I want to see a vision,” de Blasio said on Meet the Press. When asked if he was endorsing Clinton, he demurred: “Not until I see — and I would say this about any candidate — till I see an actual vision of where they want to go.”
In assembling a campaign team and vision — for an effort many close to Clinton estimate will raise and spend $1.5-to-$2 billion — Clinton has been careful to learn from the mistakes that marred her 2008 bid against Barack Obama. In a mission statement handed out to the team Saturday, campaign manager Robby Mook outlined how important it will be for the team to operate as a unified team, and as a diverse “family.”
The memo’s point was clear: Mook and senior staffers are determined to set a collaborative tone — a sharp contrast from the last campaign, when Clinton’s operation was crippled by infighting and discord among the top aides.
The memo also reminded staffers of one of the campaign’s animating themes: that the election “is not about Hillary Clinton and not about us — it’s about the everyday Americans who are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families.” That point was lost during the 2008 run, which carried the scent of coronation and when even Clinton’s first official announcement had a imperious and self-centered ring to it: “I’m in, and I’m in to win.”
Even as Clinton seeks a fresh start, she has many supporters who have been waiting for her to run again since the day she lost. “There are 18 million people who have been ready since June 3, 2008,” said Jeffrey Campagna, who served on Clinton’s 2008 finance committee and LGBT steering committee. The official announcement “means everybody can press send — everybody has mailing lists, everybody has social networks.”
President Obama, Clinton’s one-time rival, offered support Saturday at a press conference in Panama. “She was a formidable candidate in 2008,” Obama said. “She was a great supporter of mine in the general election. She was an outstanding secretary of state. She is my friend. I think she would be an excellent president. And I’m not on the ballot. So I’m not gonna step on her lines.”
He added: “The one thing I can say is she’s going to be able to handle herself very well in a conversation or debates around foreign policy. And her track record with respect to domestic policy is I think one that cares about working families.”
Many of Clinton’s allies admit they would have preferred a shorter campaign, and would have liked to delay her official entry into the race for as long as possible, but they realize that has become impossible as the anticipation of her run got ahead of her.
“The race has already begun, the coverage has already begun, she has to be part of the debate right now,” said New York labor leader Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a labor group that endorsed Clinton in 2008. “It’s going to be long and intense.”
Clinton’s official announcement also marks the official end for Ready for Hillary, the independent super PAC that for two years has been building grassroots support for Clinton’s run.
“People have wanted it to be real for two years,” said Tracy Sefl, a senior advisor to Ready for Hillary.
And while some supporters have expressed skepticism in recent days about a digital launch, fearing it would do little to humanize Clinton, Sefl said she supported the approach. “There is something symbolic and also very real about going to the middle of the country to talk about the middle class and issues that people care about, which don’t have to do with Beltway/Acela corridor stuff,” she said. “She’s going to the middle of the country to talk about the middle class. It seems perfect.”
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave on
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And in what is surly a friendly offer of good luck and some free advice, Monica Lewinsky offered this....
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Hillary's campaign hasn't exactly gotten off to the greatest start... in a initial press release they forgot to proof read it so it said that Hillary had "fought children and families" instead of saying that "fought for children and families". Her campaign logo is getting plenty of not so great comments as well....
Some think it looks like the Cuban flag, some think it resembles the FedEx logo, some have noticed that the arrow is pointing to the right... as in that its pointing toward the republican side. There are some other references as well but these are probably the most common.On her way to Iowa for a event, she stopped at a Chipotle eatery for a bit yet no one noticed she was there. It didn't help that she wore dark glasses while inside I don't imagine. I'm no political strategist but I would think that if I was someone that was assisting a presidential candidate who's doesn't exactly have the best image that I'd be having her walk around that restaurant shaking hands with everyone instead of hiding from them.
Probably the worst sign for Hillary so far is a poll that MSNBC has been running asking if you would vote for Hillary in 2016. While not a scientific poll, its still not good for Hillary when so far the results show that out of over 57,000 votes, 87% have voted that they would not vote for Hillary. If this poll was elsewhere, one that was conservative leaning then that 87% would probably make sense but when its on a democratic leaning site, well, that's just not good.
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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Anyone who votes for her will be helping to put the final nails in America's coffin. She's as big of a shyster as Obama. I looked at some of her campaign literature, signs, buttons, banners, ect. and found nothing that had "Clinton" written on them. I guess she's ashamed of the Clinton legacy. She can't even use her last name. Her campaign logo does resemble the Cuban flag. Here are some more "Hillary" signs.
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Hillary did not choose wisely when she selected her logo. She didn't think about what/where arrows could be pointing at. I'm sure there will be hundreds more like the ones above that will be coming out in the near future.
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There are times when I wonder if Hillary even really wants to be president. The first week of her candidacy is almost over with and its had its fair share of bumps, pretty much all self imposed. I've already talked about a few of those bumps so I'll mention a couple of the newest issues.
First one was that during one of her stops she mentioned that ALL of her grandparents were immigrants.... a quick Ancestry search revealed that 3 of the 4 grandparents were actually born in America. The campaign released a statement saying that her grandparents always talked about immigration so she thought they were are immigrants... obviously a weak response and shows that the campaign people didn't bother to check facts.
Next... its been reported that at least some of the people that were at one of Hillary's stop's were in fact people driven there by democratic operatives and of course given questions to ask Hillary that she would be able to quickly respond to and show how smart she is. I'd much rather have real Iowans asking her questions because in the real world you don't get to pick and choose the questions that come at you. Read more here....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3040482/Campaign-staff-DROV...
This part is maybe more opinion, my opinion... anyway, regarding her trip across America in the "Scooby" van, I have my doubts that she actually traveled the whole way in the van, wouldn't be surprised at all that she made most of the trip in a tour bus or large RV and the "Scooby" Van was loaded up as needed. I just don't see her and her staff all packed in this van from NY/NJ all the way to Iowa. I could be wrong of course but so far the only pictures/video I seen of the Scooby van was while she was in Iowa at her stops.
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Here's a riddle. Do you notice anything about the photo below that proves this was definitely a staged production and not a spontaneous cafe stop. The photo is from the link Dave provided.
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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The lack of any beverages or food in front of the patrons she's talking to? In the video at the link, the three at the table are in the background looking over at Hillary and yet have nothing ordered for the whole time they are there, apparently.
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You have a good eye. I didn't notice the fact that the two of her companions were not indulging in any beverages.
I converted the image above into black and white using the infrared effect in Photoshop Elements. It then becomes obvious as to why the scene appears to be a set up.
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A camera trick? Are you suggesting her brilliance and incandescence is not natural?
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I transformed the photo into black and white using the infrared effect to show where the brightest areas of the room are located. It's no accident that she appears brighter than anyone else in the room. She is the only one wearing bright colors so that means all the other people were instructed to wear dark clothes. The red table top also was used to draw attention to Clinton. One of the tricks of photography is to set your subject in a picture or video so that the viewers eye is drawn toward the subject as was done in this case because anywhere you look in the photo your eyes are drawn towards Clinton. I wouldn't be surprised if Clinton used a professional lighting and visual expert to set up this scenario. She put a lot of effort into trying to fool everyone into thinking this was a spur of the moment visit.
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