Hillary Clinton enters 2008 presidential race!

Finally it is official. It is going to be really interesting now :-) Would she be the first women to access the White house and the second senator in the history of the US to become a president? Doesn't matter as long as Bush is going out :-)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator and former first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday entered the 2008 presidential race, officially joining a crowded field for her party's nomination.
The second-term U.S. senator from New York and former U.S. first lady had been widely anticipated to announce her bid to become the first woman to win the U.S. presidency. She is considered a front-runner among five other candidates in the Democratic White House field.

Her announcement comes days after a similar move by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, who is expected to be her leading party competitor and whose campaign could make him the first black U.S. president. Obama's candidacy has stoked enthusiasm among Democrats looking for an alternative to Clinton, who some fear could be too polarizing to defeat a Republican candidate next year.

"I am forming a presidential exploratory committee. I am not just starting a campaign though, I am beginning a conversation with you, with America," she said in a videotaped message on her Web site. An exploratory committee is a first step toward official candidacy and allows her to raise campaign funds and hire staff.

"After six years of
George Bush it is time to renew the promise of America," she said.

President George W. Bush was elected to a second four-year term in 2004.

The wife of former President
Bill Clinton made history with her bid for U.S. Senate in New York in 2000, becoming the first former first lady to win one of the most powerful political jobs in the nation.

Clinton, 59, was re-elected by a huge margin to a second Senate term in November.

AIMING AT BUSH

In her posted written statement, Clinton took immediate aim at what she called "six years of Bush administration failures."

"I have never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in or to face down the Republican machine," she wrote. "Only a new president will be able to undo Bush's mistakes and restore our hope and optimism.

"Only a new president can renew the promise of America -- the idea that if you work hard you can count on the health care, education, and retirement security that you need to raise your family. These are the basic values of America that are under attack from this administration every day," she wrote.

"And only a new president can regain America's position as a respected leader in the world."

Clinton said she would be launching a series of live, online video conversations with voters, beginning on Monday.

Before officially declaring her candidacy for U.S. Senate in 2000, Clinton traveled around New York on a "listening tour" to meet voters and hear their issues.

Prior to her husband's two terms in the White House, Clinton was a successful attorney and advocate of children's rights, a former member of several corporate boards and public-interest boards. She was active in causes ranging from lowering infant mortality to providing legal assistance to the poor.

"Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in
Iraq and restore respect for America around the world," she said a videotaped message on her Web site, mentioning several issues she would address in her campaign such as energy, health care and retirement security.

Clinton worked on the House of Representatives committee on the impeachment of President
Richard Nixon. She attended Yale Law School where she met fellow student Bill Clinton and followed her husband to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was governor and she was a lawyer, mother and political wife.
Source

US Midterm elections.

Democrats sweep Governor’s races 28 to 22, house races 229 to 196 and currently lead the senate race 50 to 49 with a lead in the remaining (Virginia) where there could be a recount.

After 12 years in minority, the democrats are back in control of the house that will be led by the fist woman speaker of the house, Senator Nancy Pelosi from California. Senator Hilary Clinton from NY, won by almost 70%, confirming herself as a serious presidential candidate in 2008.

What is very enlightening is that the stock market traded low volume and showed a lot of caution from investors. Corporate America got spoiled under the republicans, with tax cuts, war spending and a good response to their lobby. Democrats will start target Oil Company and investigate the tax cuts they got while enjoying insane profits the last years. Corporate tax loopholes will eventually get addressed.

But, the most important thing to remember is that these elections were a referendum for Bush. Voters for senate and congress were voting for and against Bush and hopefully in the US, the balance is always shifted by the independents (not democrat or republican) who are generally middle class educated people and refuse to vote along party line which in the US is like a religion. US population is 40% always republicans (mostly in Midwest states, rural America), 40% always democrats (mostly in big cities, NY,SF,LA,..) and 20% independents who make their mind according on the current state of the affairs. This makes them the target of the candidates during the campaign. Whoever can convince him that he’ll be better, will win. But if you’re a republican candidate, you’re starting the race with a major handicap…. Bush!

We started to see the result of these elections, by Bush conceding defeat and talking about errors made in Irak. Rumsfield resigning as secretary of defense and new house elected members promising investigations on tons of issues putting Bush in a situation he’s never been in. He was always shielded by the congress and the senate, and I can tell you that we’ll be seeing a lot of comic situations :-)

I still think that this scenario is not as bad as it sounds for the Republicans, specially for the president election in 2008. Because if in 18 months the democrats can’t show sensible improvements on the big issues like Iraq, oil prices, security, there will be an open door for the republicans. In such a period of time and with Bush as president there is no much the congress can do but opposing him on any issue because the senate is almost a tie and a president still has a lot of power on the direction of the country. Bill Clinton spent 6 years as a president with a republican majority but that’s Bill!! So if things won’t change rapidly, the republicans will twist that and use it to get back in business.

So I really don’t have high expectation for the next 2 years. In order to get rid of the perception of arrogance, injustice from the rest of the world’s mind, we need to get a new president in charge and unless there will be impeachment; we’re stuck with the current one.

The only happy republican tonight is the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger who secured his role in the sequel of “Arnold, Governor of California, 2”




Hasta la vista baby :-)

NewsWeek poll: 55% will vote for Democrats

A Newsweek poll puts Democrats in control of congress with a 55% votes, 10 points ahead of republicans. This number is huge in a US election where the gap between the reps and dems is always a single digit ranging from 1 to 6.

Given that the elections are in 2 weeks, on November 7th (this has nothing to do with TN ;-)) ,this puts the republicans in a bad spot and put more pressure on them.
Let's hope it stays this way, because after all the scandals ranging from corruption to luring teens for sex, not to mention the most important thing, which is that this congress signed the most dangerous bills in the history of the USA (support of war, surveillance, military tribunal..)