USA-ELECTION/CLINTON PROFILE CORRECTED Hillary Clinton to announce second attempt at White House

Record ID: 135898

  • Title: USA-ELECTION/CLINTON PROFILE CORRECTED Hillary Clinton to announce second attempt at White House
  • Date: 13th April 2015
  • Summary: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE WHITE HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5VKPTO8XILP5S12SFJ1NRX8LO
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hillary Clinton heads into the 2016 White House race as a clearly defined brand in the shifting world of party politics, a master of reinvention and one of the most recognizable public figures in the world, a blade which Clinton knows all too well -- can cut both ways.
    While there are a dozen or so likely Republican contenders vying for the presidency, many still relatively unknown, Clinton has a different task: reassuring voters who already like her, and wooing those who do not.
    Only two percent of Americans say they have never heard of her, according to a Gallup poll last month, a level of name recognition exceeding that of Vice President Joe Biden, a name unknown to a tenth of Americans.
    Clinton, 67, has been hinting about a possible second run for the White House for months, laying the groundwork with multiple visits to states with early primaries and caucuses.
    "Well, it is true, I am thinking about it, but for today, that is not why I'm here," she said during a trip to Iowa to campaign for fellow Democrat Paul Harkin.
    Clinton returns to turf she knows well -- the soaring rhetoric and pointed barbs of the campaign trail.
    "What we need in our next president is someone who deeply believes in the American dream, who is a product of that dream," Clinton told voters at one of her early campaign stops in New Hampshire.
    "It did take a Clinton to clean after the first Bush and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush," Clinton said to cheers during one of several Democratic presidential debates.
    The grind of multiple speeches in multiple states and near daily polls showing rival Barack Obama chipping away at her lead also revealed a surprising vulnerability.
    "This is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I see what's happening. We have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game; they think it's who is up and who is down. It's about our country. It's about our kids' futures. It's really about all of us together. Some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds, "Clinton said during one of her 2008 campaign's most memorable moments.
    New Hampshire voters rewarded Clinton with a primary win. Other key states followed including Pennsylvania and Ohio.
    "We still have a lot of work ahead of us but if you're ready. I'm ready," she said at a rally in Pennsylvania.
    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 - an observation bared out in thousands of photos of the Clintons deep in conversation.
    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 surface 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.
    She is expected to announce her run on Sunday (April 12), starting her campaign as the Democrats' best hope of fending off a crowded field of lesser-known Republican rivals and retaining the White House.
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