In the race

Ending almost two years of speculation, Hillary Clinton has made a low-key announcement that she will indeed be running for the Democratic Party presidential nomination for 2016. Almost certain to win that nomination Clinton will be the first woman to run for US president. The US falls among a dwindling set of countries that has never been headed by a woman. Hillary Clinton has for years indicated an interest in breaking this barrier and ran for the nomination in 2008, but then conceded in favour of Barack Obama, who is today a strong supporter of her bid. She has other powerful backers too, including Secretary of State John Kerry who took over the post held by Clinton from 2009 to 2013. Former president Bill Clinton is also likely to feature in his wife’s campaign, which kicks off with a rally in mid-May.
Hillary Clinton, who used her website to announce her candidacy, stated that she wished to ‘champion the cause’ of the everyday American. This in many ways follows the line taken by Obama during his successful campaign for the presidency in 2008. What Clinton will need to demonstrate is that she is capable of delivering, rather than merely making promises, something the current White House incumbent has come under heavy criticism for. Republican attacks on Hillary Clinton, led by party presidential candidate Rand Paul, focus on what they term her mishandling of an attack on a US compound in Ben Ghazi, Libya, in 2012 in which the US ambassador was killed. They allege that as secretary of state she acted too cautiously. Indeed Clinton’s line on foreign policy has consistently been mixed. In 2003 she backed the US attack on Iraq but later retracted. Pakistan also recalls her tough stance after the 2011 raid by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad as they went after Osama bin Laden. She has also spoken out against terrorist havens in the country. Her presidential contest will then be closely watched from around the world, with Hillary Clinton noted as a liberal voice on issues such as women’s rights but a hardliner on many foreign policy concerns.