Former First Lady Hillary Clinton last night confirmed her entrance into the presidential race in what will be her second bid for the presidency.
Clinton formally kicked off her campaign through a newly launched website topped with the slogan
“This starts with you, and a video uploaded to the site which featured the big announcement.
“I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,because it’s your time, Clinton stated in her video, presenting herself as a champion for the “everyday American,”
The Clinton camp have made no secret of the fact that the former first lady was considering a presidential campaign, with Ms.Clinton hinting many times over the past two years that she would once again enter the race for the White House.
Clinton’s first bid for the presidency in 2008 fell short as she failed to win the Democratic Party nomination from current President Barrack Obama.
Obama lauded Ms.Clinton on Saturday for her service during his first term in office.
“She was a formidable candidate in 2008. She was a great supporter of mine in the general election. She was an outstanding secretary of state. She is my friend,” President Obama said at a regional summit in Panama.
Following Ms.Clinton’s announcement, tweets and messages of support began pouring in from across the globe, with her daughter Chelsea one of the first to congratulate her.
It is believed that this time Hillary Clinton’s campaign will focus on the middle classes to whom her video catered.
A memo circulated by Robbie Mook , the man believed to be Ms.Clinton’s campaign manager, to aides last Saturday stated:
“This campaign 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.”
Campaign chairman John Podesta stated yesterday that Ms.Clinton traveled to the early voting state of Iowa to begin her campaign.
If she wins the Democratic nomination, Clinton will be the first female presidential candidate by either of the two main parties.
In a series of polls so far this year Ms.Clinton places ahead of each of her Republican opponents. She also tops opinion polls among Democrats, with 60% stating they would vote for her in the primaries, according to the website RealClearPolitics.
Other Democrats tipped to join Hillary in the race, but who have not yet made an announcement are current Vice-President Joe Biden, former Governor of Maryland Martin O’Malley and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
The Republicans.
Kentucky senator Rand Paul also kicked off his presidential campaign last Tuesday, becoming the second Republican to formally announce his candidacy.
The Tea Party favourite is the son of congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul.
First elected to the senate in 2010 following the first Tea Party surge, supporters of the “libertarian-ish,”congressman have witnessed his rapid rise in popularity in the five years since then.
Speaking from the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, the senator was greeted by a roaring crowd and opened with the message: “We’ve come to take our country back,”
He pledged to end what he called the “Washington Machine,”
The pragmatic senator used this message as a basis to prove he wouldn’t pull his political punches, criticizing both the Democratic and Republican parties for becoming a part of the so called “machine,”
Paul called for an end to “big government and debt” and a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution, demands that have become common place among conservative ranks.
However he did not call for an end to the Federal Reserve, nor lament about how the country deserved a share in the blame for terrorism, all hallmarks of his father’s previous campaign rallies.
Instead Paul adopted a sunny shade of optimism for the crowd gathered in Kentucky, stressing his desire to see an improvement in the lives of people living in “impoverished areas,” as well as “any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of colour” to repealed.
The subject of privacy and the protection of civil liberties played prominently in Paul’s speech as he attacked the National Security Agency, stating that “the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damn business.”
While the majority hail Paul’s first foray into the presidential campaign as a success, critics of the Kentuckian insist that Rand Paul is much more conservative than his speech revealed.
Paul is against a federal ban on same sex marriage, but feels that it should be left up to each state to decide – he personally opposes it.
He has also, in the past, sponsored a law that would ban all abortions, taking no allowance for cases of incest or rape.
Paul is competing in the Republican primaries with Canadian born Senator, Ted Cruz.
Republican rivalry.
Cruz announced his candidacy for president on March 23rd at the Liberty University, Lynchberg Virginia, the first major figure from any party to enter the race.
The Texas senator has long held the reputation as a political firebrand and was part of the primary opposition to the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) five years ago.
In 2013 he pushed his party into a shut down of the federal government in an unsuccessful effort to deny funding to the Affordable Care Act, somewhat isolating himself from top-tier Republican leaders, and drawing praise from the Tea Party movement.
Cruz began his speech in Lynchberg by recalling the lives of his mother and father, and making reference to his strong personal faith.
Faith continued to play a strong part for this far-right Republican as he revealed the centre piece of his campaign strategy.
“Today, roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across American coming out to the polls and voting our values,” he told the cheering crowds.
Cruz encouraged his supporters to imagine the goals that could be accomplished if they protected liberty and restrained government.
He made particular mention about wanting to repeal Obamacare and the abolition of the IRS. Like his opponent Rand Paul, he also called for the protection of privacy for law-abiding Americans.
Some of the expected conservative staples also featured in his speech, such as the protection of religious liberty, honouring and protecting the sacrament of marriage as well as defending 2nd amendment rights.
Potential opponents.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, along with former governor of the state, Jeb Bush, have been openly exploring the possibility of throwing their hats in the ring for the presidential title.
This will make it the first time in modern political history that two presidential candidates will have claimed the same home ground at the same time.
Senator Rubio is expected to announce his campaign later today, while Bush released a new video last night entitled “Better,” as he moves towards his expected announcement to run for the White House in the next number of weeks.
“We must to do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy that has damaged relationships with our allies and emboldened our enemies,” Bush says.
“Better than their failed, big-government policies that grow our debt and stand in the way of real economic growth and prosperity.”
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Update: 16:00pm Monday the 13th April 2015
Today, Senator Marco Rubio announced via conference call to donors and supporters his intention to run for president.
He told his supporters that he felt that he was “uniquely qualified,” to show the American public that the GOP will defend the American dream, the Associated Press reported.
The senator is set to hold his first campaign rally to formally announce his presidency tonight, at Miamis Freedom Tower.
Rubio will be won to watch in the upcoming Republican race for president thanks to his Latino heritage and his keen focus on foreign policy and national security issues.
At a time when Republicans are struggling to appeal to the Hispanic demographic thanks to the GOP’s stance on emigration. Rubio is a fluent Spanish speaker whose parents came to the states from Cuba some years ago, and is the candidate most likely to help the party build bridges with Hispanic voters.
Serving on both the senate foreign relations committee and the intelligence committee will place Rubio in good stead with the threat of ISIS and relations with Iran currently on the minds of many Americans.
