VIDEO: Hillary Clinton launches second bid to become next US president

Hillary Clinton kicks off second run for White House by declaring that ‘Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion’, write Jonathan Allen and John Whitsides

Hillary Clinton cast herself as a champion for everyday Americans yesterday, kicking off her long-awaited second run for the White House with a vow to fight for a level playing field for those recovering from tough economic times.

Clinton, who begins the 2016 presidential race as a commanding Democratic frontrunner, entered the fray with a video announcement in which she said the economic deck was still stacked for those at the top.

“Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion,” she said in the video, posted on her new website last night. “So you can do more than just get by, you can get ahead. And stay ahead.”

Clinton, who lost a bruising Democratic nominating battle to Barack Obama in 2008, said in a tweet that she would be travelling to Iowa, the state that holds the kickoff contest in the parties’ nominating process in early 2016.

Clinton’s campaign will emphasise her plans to address economic inequality and will tout the historic nature of her effort to become the first woman US president, aides said.

I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. –H https://t.co/w8Hoe1pbtC

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 12, 2015

One of the biggest challenges for a woman who has been one of the most famous figures in the US since the early 1990s, will be to show a more down-to-earth side while connecting with ordinary voters.

Critics, including liberals in her own party, say she has grown out of touch after decades as the wife of former president Bill Clinton, a US senator, and secretary of state during Obama’s first term.

To address that, Clinton’s website and the announcement video feature Americans talking about their futures, and an image of her holding a paper coffee cup at a table with a couple of elderly people.

Clinton is seen listening to voters before the video cuts to her speaking outside a home. “I’m getting ready to do something too, I’m running for president,” she says, before emphasising to voters that it is “your time”.

“Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favour of those at the top,” she said.

Within 30 minutes of Clinton’s announcement, the campaign kick-off video posted to her Facebook page had been viewed nearly 90,000 times and she topped the list of topics trending on Twitter.

The campaign is aware of the pitfalls of star power. In a memo made public on Saturday, Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, told staff to stay humble. “We are humble: We take nothing for granted, we are never afraid to lose, we always out-compete and fight for every vote we can win,” he said.

Even before yesterday’s much-anticipated announcement, potential opponents in what is shaping up to be a crowded Republican presidential field took swings at Clinton.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush criticised her guidance of US foreign policy as secretary of state.

“We must do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy that has damaged relationships with our allies and emboldened our enemies,” Bush said in a video released by the political action committee Right to Rise.

Bush, brother to former President George W Bush, is currently exploring a presidential bid himself.

Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who formally began his campaign for the Republican nomination last week, made the rounds of Sunday talk shows to slam Clinton’s handling of a 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

In her memoir Hard Choices, Clinton dismissed the Republican criticism of her handling of the attacks as exploiting a tragedy for political gain.

Many Democrats have been waiting for Clinton to get back into the White House fight since the day in June 2008 when she pulled out of her primary battle against Obama with an expression of regret that she could not crack “that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time”.

Clinton still has to convince some liberals that she is the best candidate to tackle issues like income inequality and the power of Wall Street banks. Some liberal groups are pushing Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, who has vocally criticised some Wall Street practices, to challenge Clinton.

Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, the largest US federation of labour unions, praised Clinton’s public-service record and said he hoped her candidacy would elevate the “critical debate” in the country over how to raise wages.

The Clinton campaign’s finance chair, Dennis Cheng, emailed donors and bundlers yesterday telling them to expect an email from Clinton herself, one donor said.

Marc Stanley, a Dallas lawyer and a prominent Democratic fundraiser, said he and a colleague planned to send “several hundred” messages to donors yesterday asking them to support Clinton.

Clinton’s announcement will be followed by visits in coming days to key early-voting states including Iowa.

I’m hitting the trail to earn your vote. Headed to Iowa. –H http://t.co/Mut4vOMxm0

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 12, 2015

Obama endorsement

Hillary Clinton would be an “excellent president,” US president Barack Obama said one day before his former secretary of state announced her campaign for the White House in 2016.

“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.

“I think she would be an excellent president”, Obama said during a news conference at the Americas summit in Panama City.

Obama said he expects “she will be very clear about her vision for the country moving forward”.

Obama offered a strong endorsement of her abilities and lauded her foreign policy as the top US diplomat during his first term in office.

“She’s going to be able to handle herself really well in any conversations that take place around foreign policy,” he told reporters, adding: “her track record with respect to domestic policy is, I think, one that cares about working families”.

Clinton plans to announce her long-anticipated plans through video and social media before travelling to key early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a Democrat close to the Clinton camp.

Obama, asked about the possibility of his vice president, Joe Biden, running to succeed him, demurred.

“Not only have I run in my last election, I am not in the business of prognosticating future elections,” he said.

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