- Title: Recent national poll may be red flag for Clinton
- Date: 13th May 2016
- Summary: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 20, 2016) (REUTERS-BROADCASTER: NONE DIGITAL:NONE) CLINTON SUPPORTERS WITH SIGNS READING "FIGHTING FOR US"
- Embargoed: 28th May 2016 18:14
- Keywords: Hillary Clinton president election Democrat nominee profile backgrounder
- Location: NEAR UNITY, NEW HAMPSHIRE; WASHINGTON D.C., NEW YORK, NEW YORK, DENVER, COLORADO; INDIANOLA, IOWA; WASHINGTON D.C.; LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS; PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,UNITED STATES, INTERNET,
- City: NEAR UNITY, NEW HAMPSHIRE; WASHINGTON D.C., NEW YORK, NEW YORK, DENVER, COLORADO; INDIANOLA, IOWA; WASHINGTON D.C.; LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS; PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,UNITED STATES, INTERNET,
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0044HO46YV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Republican Donald Trump pulled even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released this week, in a dramatic early sign that the Nov. 8 presidential election might be more hotly contested than first thought.
The national survey found 41 percent of likely voters supporting Clinton and 40 percent backing Trump, with 19 percent undecided.
While much can change in the six months until the election, the results of the online survey are a red flag for the Clinton campaign that the billionaire's unorthodox bid for the White House cannot be brushed aside.
Clinton, a former secretary of state, senator and first lady heads into the next round of nominating contests against rival candidate Bernie Sanders with her momentum slowing - but still favored to be the Democratic candidate.
Sanders has vowed to take his campaign all the way to the Democrats' July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia, and wants a say in shaping the party's platform.
In 2008, Clinton ultimately lost her party's nomination to Barack Obama, a humiliating defeat played out on the national stage. The rejection by her fellow Democrats would mark one of Clinton's darkest hours -- and considering the theme of reinvention and firsts in her career, the start of yet another incarnation.
Clinton's unlikely path to political office began on the sidelines, as the wife to then Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton who would go onto serve two terms in the White House.
Both Yale Law School graduates, the Clintons were a departure from more traditional political couples. During his 1992 campaign, Clinton promised voters that they would get "two for one," by voting him into office but quickly dropped that claim when it proved unpopular.
Reporters covering the White House noted Clinton's involvement, her unofficial role as primary adviser to the president.
Her biggest initiative while her husband was president, national healthcare reform, fell apart without coming to a vote in Congress.
Emerging from the shadow of her husband in 2000, First Lady Clinton went on to become candidate Clinton, carving out a career as a politician representing New York in the U.S. Senate for eight years. It was the first for a former First Lady, and the start of many firsts in her career.
By the summer of 2008, Clinton, now a failed presidential candidate was ready to consider former rival Obama's offer to appoint her Secretary of State.
The international stage would prove far more welcoming to Clinton, who appeared to find her stride, crisscrossing the globe for talks with world leaders and demonstrating a command of foreign affairs. In her new capacity as the U.S.'s top diplomat, Clinton saw her approval ratings soar, reaching 66 percent in 2010.
The burst of approval a few short years after the public's rejection of her presidential ambitions, the triumphs followed by potentially career ending lows, have been a constant in her more than two decades in public life.
By 2012, Clinton was again on the defensive, answering to Republicans in congress about the Obama administration's handling of attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
"The fact is we had four dead Americans, whether it was because of a protest or because there was some guys who went out for a walk one night and decided they wanted to go kill some Americans. What difference at this point does this make? It is our job to figure out what happened and to everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again," Clinton told members of a House of Representatives committee investigating Benghazi.
Recent months have seen Clinton responding to criticism about her decision to use a personal email account while she was secretary of state.
"Looking back, it would've been better if I'd simply used a second email account and carried a second phone, but at the time, this didn't seem like an issue," Clinton told swarms of media gathered at the United Nations.
Intense scrutiny and scandal are familiar terrain for Clinton who in 1996 earned the distinction of being the only U.S. First Lady called to testify before a grand jury. Arriving to a U.S. court to answer questions about her and her husband's real estate investments in Whitewater, Clinton was greeted by hundreds of photographers and reporters.
Two years later, the Clinton White House was rocked by another scandal - this time a sexual one. While allegations of sexual infidelity swirled around Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, new ones surfaced in 1998 when his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.
Clinton's decision to stand by her husband even as the tawdry details of her husband's affair were splashed across television screens and newspapers worldwide, earned her admiration in some quarters, and made her a subject of fascination for many. They also earned Clinton her highest approval rating ever -- 67 percent according a 1999 poll.
Twenty-plus years in public life have also given Americans a glimpse at a less formal, less guarded Clinton. Clinton's laugh, which reporters suggested she made changes to in order to appear more personable during her 2008 campaign, can be seen in hundreds of photos of Clinton with foreign leaders during her time as Secretary of State.
In contrast to her 2008 campaign, Clinton has shown signs she will not play down how her being a woman distinguishes her from the 44 men who have previously become president.
Clinton has sounded out potential campaign themes during public appearances, casting herself as both a love-filled new grandmother with a vested concern in the future and a wise former diplomat who understands how countries thrive and fail.
"Don't you someday want to see a woman president of the United States of America," Clinton asked during a speech before Emily's List, a political action group which focuses on getting pro-choice female candidates elected.
If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she would be the first woman to be selected as the presidential choice for a major political party. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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