Hillary Clinton Goes for Round Two

Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her candidacy for president in the 2016 election on April 12 of this year. This will be her second time running, her last participation being in the 2008 election. She was, at first, never going to run again, on the account of the mistakes she claims she made in the last election. But after studying her flaws carefully, Clinton plans on doing things differently this time around. Unlike her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton is not keen on politics, and, according to politico.com, “performs best when she is losing.” Clinton was never one hundred percent sure she wanted to run again, but her husband urged her to, as he saw this as a road to “family redemption.”

Some women closest to Clinton were telling her to not run again. They suggested she quit while she was ahead and bow out in the height of her popularity. Even Harold Ickes, a Clinton associate and central role player in the 2008 election weighed in on the downsides, saying that the conservatives would dig up anything they could on her to try and destroy her. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Hillary and Bill supported her mother running again, but was hesitant, taking into the account her parents’ physical and mental conditions, saying that her father has had heart problems.

So far in Clinton’s campaign she’s stepped up to the podium to voice her opinion and solutions on various issues our country is facing, most recently, the situation in Baltimore.

“There is something profoundly wrong when African-American men are still far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms than are meted out to their white counterparts,” said Mrs. Clinton in her speech at Columbia University, according to The New York Times.

Clinton is trying to take a side with Americans over Baltimore, saying that it tears at her soul that a young man would die from injuries received by police. She also showed sympathy for injuries police received from protesters.

People who really know Hillary knew that she was going to run for president, no matter what she said before making her final decision. They knew that she was “kidding herself all along” when she would declare she wasn’t running. Now that it’s out that she is, she is more prepared than last time and is ready to make better choice to win over America’s decision to vote for her.

“I would vote for Hillary if I had no idea who the person running against her was,” says Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (FSSA) Senior drama major Bradley Clarke. He says that this will probably be the case, too, in that he will probably vote for Hillary because he does not follow politics or anything of the sort. This could also be because Hillary is well known from being on Bill Clinton’s side during his presidency.

“When Barack ran the first time, I knew neither party. I didn’t know any of them, but I picked Barack because I thought he was going to win due to the fact that he would be the first African-American president,” says Bradley. “Do I think that Hillary Clinton is going to win because she would become the first female president? I don’t know.”

Bradley goes on to say that Clinton would probably get a lot of fan following, but you really only see her as the first lady, not a president.

Although all of these points do seem valid enough to determine Clinton’s fate in the election, Bradley says that if she were to be honest and bring the appeal she does as a first lady or “America’s Mother” to the campaign, she might have a chance at winning.

Senior instrumentalist, Ezgi Cakirca believes that voting gives people a voice.

“If you have the idea that ‘I’m just one voice. I’m not gonna mean anything,’ then one by one that voice dies out.’” She describes voting in our country as a “team effort.”

Ezgi says that she’ll only vote for Hillary if she finds a medium between the older generation and the younger generation. She also thinks what will do Clinton good in this election is if she appeals to our issues as well as those of our elders.

“Sadly enough, it does come out to gender and equality,” adds Ezgi. “Although this is 2015 and a time for change and everything, we’re going to end up having even female voters listening to their male companions on who to vote for, and they will most likely pick a guy.”

– Jaeda Blair ’15