Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign

Hillary Rodham Clinton
President of the United States
Personal details
Political party	Democratic

New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had expressed interest in the 2008 United States presidential race since at least October 2002, drawing media speculation on whether or not she would become a candidate. No woman has ever been nominated by a major party to run for President in the history of U.S. presidential elections. Clinton is also the first wife of an American president to run for president.

On January 20, 2007, she announced that she was forming an exploratory committee and filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. Subsequently she began heavy fundraising and campaigning activities. For several months Clinton led opinion polls among Democratic candidates by substantial margins, until Senator Barack Obama pulled close to or even with her. Clinton then regained her lead, winning many polls by double digits; by autumn 2007 she was leading all other Democratic candidates by wide margins in national polls. She placed third in the Iowa caucus to Barack Obama and John Edwards, and trailed badly in polls shortly thereafter in New Hampshire, before staging a sudden comeback and finishing first in the New Hampshire primary.

Pre-announcement events

From the year 2004 to 2006

Starting after the 2004 US presidential election, Clinton was, due to her established national image that made her a possible candidate in the 2008 presidential election, a popular and controversial topic among media pundits, bloggers, and the public at large. For example, in July 2005 the magazine Washington Monthly ran two side-by-side articles, one suggesting that she could win the presidency and one that she could not. Early on in the election race she has been included in opinion polls, where she was often listed in first place among possible Democractic candidates.

Starting in 2004, Clinton began what some saw as a movement to the political center by supporting health care reform with Contract with America architect and former adversary Newt Gingrich. The alignment represents a reconciliation with the past, for it was Gingrich who helped defeat Clinton's health care plan in the early 1990s. Clinton's January 2005 speech on abortion was viewed by some as part of her alleged move to the center. Liberal media watchdog Media Matters has offered evidence that Clinton's positions have remained consistent with her past. In January 2005, the conservative Washington Times reported that Clinton was positioning herself as a centrist; others cited her Senate voting record as proof that was not the case.

Pre-announcement events in 2006

In January 2006, the moderate-liberal magazine The New Republic attempted to debunk the "myth" that Senator Clinton's popularity in traditionally Republican regions of upstate New York was unprecedented, arguing both that the region was not as conservative as was often assumed in the national media and that her approval ratings there were comparable to those of other prominent Democrats. The article challenged the assumption that Sen. Clinton's appeal in upstate New York would be the harbinger of her ability to attract support from moderates and conservatives nationwide, setting off a debate throughout the blogosphere as to her presidential prospects.

In February 2006, the The White House Project website named Hillary Rodham Clinton one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly run and/or be elected president in 2008. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said that he's pulling for Clinton to win the White House: "I'd be very pleased if Hillary Clinton would become the next American president".

Announcement of candidacy

Clinton announced the formation of her exploratory committee on 20 January, 2007, with a post on her website. In a statement on her campaign website, she left no doubt that she had decided to run: "I'm in. And I'm in to win." She has filed the official paperwork for an exploratory committee.

A "formal" announcement of her actual candidacy may or may not come later, as some 2008 presidential candidates are foregoing that step.

Campaign staff and policy team

Clinton has assembled a team of advisers and operatives to run her campaign. Patti Solis Doyle is the first female Hispanic to manage a presidential campaign. Deputy campaign manager Mike Henry had managed Tim Kaine's successful campaign for Governor of Virginia in 2005, and coordinated the Democratic advertising efforts for the Senate elections of 2006. Howard Wolfson, a veteran of New York politics, serves as the campaign spokesperson. Evelyn S. Lieberman, who worked for Clinton when she was First Lady and served as Deputy White House Chief of Staff, is the chief operating officer of the campaign. Cheryl Mills] is general counsel for the campaign. Other campaign workers also date from the "Hillaryland" team of the White House years. An October 2007 study of ongoing presidential campaign staffs showed that 8 out of 14 of her senior staff were women, as were 12 out of 20 of her top-paid staff and 85 out of 161 of her nominally-paid staff; overall she had the largest percentage of women in her campaign of any candidate surveyed other than Mike Huckabee.

In terms of policy advisors, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is Clinton's "top informal advisor" on foreign policy matters and has campaigned for her. Other big names in her camp include Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger, Wesley Clark, Former Congresswoman and VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro, Fmr. Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and William Perry. Less well-known but key region and subject specialists have been the focus of an intense recruiting battle between her and fellow candidate Barack Obama.

Fundraising

Hillary Clinton's fundraising efforts for the first three quarters of 2007.

Main article: Fundraising for the 2008 presidential election

Methods and goals

In January 2007 Clinton announced that she would forgo public financing for both the primary and general elections due to the spending limits imposed when accepting the federal money. She had $14 million left from her 2006 Senate race, which put her in a good starting position compared to other Democratic candidates. Clinton insiders said the senator's goal is to raise at least $60 million in 2007. Longtime Democratic political and finance leader Terry McAuliffe is Clinton's campaign chair; notable fundraisers such as Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. and Steven Rattner have signed on to her campaign. "Bundlers" who collect more than $100,000 for her campaign become known as "HillRaisers"; she has asked them to raise as much as $1 million each.

Results

On April 1, 2007, Clinton announced she had raised $26 million during the preceding three months, along with an additional transfer of $10 million from her Senate campaign account to her presidential account. This dwarfed the previous record for the comparable quarter, which was $9 million by Al Gore in 1999.

For the second quarter of 2007, Clinton raised about $27 million, less than Obama's newly set records for the quarter of $32.5 million in donations from 258,000 contributors, but more than all other candidates. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, during the first six months of the year, about 70% of her fundraising came from donors giving the maximum $2,300 each; this compared to figures of 44% for Obama and 42% for Edwards.

For the third quarter of 2007, which typically sees lower numbers than the rest of the year, Clinton led all candidates with $27 million raised and with 100,000 new contributors. This beat Obama's $20 million, and allowed Clinton to apportion some of the amount for an expected general election race, rather than the primary season.

In the fourth quarter of 2007 Clinton raised approximately $20 million, bringing her total for the year to over $100 million. This equaled the amount raised by Obama in the quarter, and was also similar to what Republican fundraising surprise Ron Paul garnered during the quarter.

The Norman Hsu affair

Norman Hsu was a businessman with a background in the apparel industry. By 2007 he was a prominent fundraiser for the Clinton campaign, having achieved HillRaiser status, having co-hosted a $1 million fundraiser at wealthy Democratic Party supporter Ron Burkle's Beverly Hills estate, and having been scheduled to co-host a major gala fundraising event featuring music legend Quincy Jones.

On August 28, 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hsu may have engaged in improper actions during the collection of "bundled" campaign contribution. The Clinton campaign rose to Hsu's defense, saying "Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic party and its candidates, including Senator Clinton. During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question."

The next day, on August 29, The Los Angeles Times reported that Hsu was a long-time fugitive, having failed to appear for sentencing in a 1992 fraud conviction. The Clinton campaign reversed course, saying it would give to charity the $23,000 that Hsu personally contributed to her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election and her political action committee, saying, "In light of the information regarding Mr. Hsu's outstanding warrant in California, we will be giving his contribution to charity." The campaign said it did not plan to give away funds that Hsu had collected from other donors.

Although Hsu had donated to other Democratic candidates as well, scrutiny was focused on the Clinton campaign, with mainstream press reports asking why the Clinton campaign had been unable to take steps to discover Hsu's past, and speculating that opponents would liken developments to the 1996 Bill Clinton-Al Gore Chinese fundraising controversy. Some bastions of the conservative media took a harsher tact, with WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah stating baldly that Hillary Clinton should be arrested by the FBI. Clinton said the Hsu revelations were “a big surprise to everybody.” She added that, “When you have as many contributors as I’m fortunate enough to have, we do the very best job we can based on the information available to us to make appropriate vetting decisions.”

On September 5, Hsu failed to appear for a court hearing and suddenly became a fugitive again. The Clinton campaign said, “We believe that Mr. Hsu, like any individual who has obligations before the court, should be meeting them, and he should do so now.” Hsu was recaptured less than 48 hours later.

By September 10, newspaper reports indicated that the FBI was looking into the legitimacy of an investment pool that Hsu had been running at the time of his large-scale contributing. Moreover, Irvine, California businessman Jack Cassidy said he had, as early as June 2007, tried to warn authorities and the Clinton campaign that Hsu was running an illicit enterprise, and that both officials and the Clinton campaign had been non-responsive. A California Democratic Party query at the time in June was responded to by the Clinton campaign's western finance director: "I can tell you with 100 certainty that Norman Hsu is NOT involved in a ponzi scheme. He is COMPLETELY legit." The campaign later said it had further looked at Hsu's public records at the time, but that no problems had emerged.

Later on September 10, the Clinton campaign announced it would return the full $850,000 in donations that Hsu had raised from others: "In light of recent events and allegations that Mr. Norman Hsu engaged in an illegal investment scheme, we have decided out of an abundance of caution to return the money he raised for our campaign. An estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign." In doing so, the Clinton camp set a precedent for how campaigns should deal with potential "bundling" scandals. The campaign also announced it would put into place tougher procedures for vetting major contributors, including running criminal background checks. Hsu-raised bundles had also gone to Clinton's political action committee and to her 2006 Senate re-election campaign; Clinton officials were undecided regarding what to do with those funds.

In the following days, campaign strategists were worried that the Hsu matter had the potential to become a major fundraising scandal that could significantly damage the campaign. Nevertheless, the campaign indicated that it would try to get donations re-given right after the refunds, for example taking back donations if they clearly came from the donor's bank account rather than from Hsu or another third party and if the donor swears the money is their own. Clinton herself affirmed this position: "I believe that the vast majority of those two-hundred-plus donors are perfectly capable of making up their own minds."

The political watchdog organization Judicial Watch said they would try to get the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the Hsu matter. Clinton aides stressed that Hsu had never received favorable treatment from her: "The Senate office had no official contact with him, and undertook no actions on his behalf." Clinton herself called the whole affair "a rude awakening to all of us," meaning other campaigns as well.

By October 2007 the Hsu matter had quieted down. Clinton's third quarter campaign expenditures report showed the $800,000 in contributions, mostly Hsu-related, being returned to more than 200 donors, some of whom were surprised to see the money coming back and who said they knew not of Hsu.

Other irregularities

In March of 2007 a Pakistani immigrant named Abdul Rehman Jinnah was indicted by a grand jury for violating federal election laws. The charges stem from $30,000 in illegal contributions to Clinton's presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton's campaign has denied any knowledge of Jinnah's scheme.

In September 2007, reports were made that one William Danielczyk, private equity firm head, raised bundled money for Clinton from Republican Party supporters, including at least one who claimed that Danielczyk later reimbursed her, a charge of illegality that Danielczyk denied. The Clinton campaign returned that donation in question, and said in general: "These allegations are troubling and we will again ask each of the individuals solicited by Mr. Danielczyk to affirm that their contributions were given with their own funds."

In October 2007, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Clinton had found another windfall of donations from the Chinese, this time from street vendors and bus boys in New York City.. The article went on to say, in part: "Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury. In April, a single fundraiser in an area long known for its gritty urban poverty yielded a whopping $380,000." Clinton made use of Chinese neighborhood associations in gathering the donations; such organizations exert considerable influence over recent immigrants. Many of these associations represent recent immigrants from Fujian province, and at least one of them is a descendant of a criminal organization involved in gambling and human trafficking. A third of the 150 donors that the Times tried to locate could not be found using property, telephone, or business records. Most of the donors in Flushing that the Times tried to contact could not be reached for comment. Some appeared to be ineligible to make campaign contributions. The New York Post later made similar findings and even found one instance of a woman being repaid for her contribution. The Washington Post editorialized that reports such as these appear "to be another instance in which a Clinton campaign's zeal for campaign cash overwhelms its judgment," comparing it to the 1996 Clinton-Gore finance controversy of her husband.

In December 2007, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence and the Canada Free Press claimed that one of Clinton's fundraisers in New Jersey, a U.S. resident who was associated with a December 12 fundraising event at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, was also a fundraiser for the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which the U.S. government has suspected is a front organization for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Campaign development 2007

Speech patterns

File:HillaryClinton08.gif

Hillary Clinton campaign logo

While speaking from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama on March 4, 2007, as part of ceremonies honoring the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965, Clinton adopted a broad Southern Drawl during parts of her talk and used speech patterns common to the Southern United States. The native Chicagoan's normal speech is devoid of this accent. Clinton's defenders pointed out that she may have adopted a southern accent because she lived in the Southern United States for 17 years. Defenders of Clinton also pointed out that the most commonly circulated audio and video clips of her "Southern" speech focused a segment in which she was reciting the lyrics of a James Cleveland hymn and trying to reproduce its original cadences. However, on April 20, 2007, while speaking her own words to the annual convention of the National Action Network, she once again temporarily adopted this accent. On April 27, 2007, while speaking at a Greenville, South Carolina campaign event, Clinton said that she had split her life among three parts of the country and that her sometimes-Southern accent was a virtue. She joked, "I think America is ready for a multilingual president."

First debate

On April 26, 2007, she appeared with seven other Democratic candidates at the first debate of the campaign, held at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina and broadcast on MSNBC. She defended her initial Senate vote to approve the U.S. role in the Iraq War, but wanted to focus on what to do now, saying “If this president does not get us out of Iraq, when I’m president I will.”

Threat

On May 4, 2007, a Louisiana State University student was arrested and held on charges of planning an attack against Clinton during a Baton Rouge appearance.

Campaign song

In June 2007, Clinton spoofed the much-talked-about closing scene of "Made in America", the series finale of The Sopranos, with the subject being the voting for her campaign song. The parody shows her entering a diner to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", followed by Bill entering but not getting the onion rings he really wants, while daughter Chelsea is unable to parallel park her car. Sopranos cast member Vince Curatola also appears in the skit, mimicking "Man in Members Only" but with his signature Johnny Sack malevolent glare. The screen then goes black.

The campaign song selected was Céline Dion's "You and I", which garnered political criticism from Republicans for being "outsourced" to a Canadian singer; the song was written initially for use in an Air Canada commercial.

Viral videos

Besides the Sopranos spoof, other popular viral videos played a role in the campaign. In March 2007, "Hillary 1984" spliced footage of Clinton into the legendary "1984" Apple Computers television commercial, ending with a plug for Barack Obama's candidacy. In June 2007 Obama was the beneficiary of the very popular "I Got a Crush on Obama" music video, as an attractive young woman suggestively sang his praises. In July 2007 singer and actress Taryn Southern wrote and performed in an answer music video, "Hott4Hill", that earned national media attention for its sexually ambiguous declaration of support for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. In both cases, the videos were created and produced independently of the Obama and Clinton campaigns. In December 2007 satirical site 23/6 produced two videos "against" Clinton by a purported "SwiftKids for Truth" that made fun of viral videos and negative ads in general.

First campaign trip with Bill

In early July 2007, Bill Clinton had his most visible presence yet on the campaign, when he campaigned jointly with Hillary Clinton for several days in Iowa. Political watchers said his appearance was both to bolster Clinton's slow start in Iowa organizing and to combat attention from rival Barack Obama's record-setting second-quarter fundraising. The campaign went to lengths to keep Hillary Clinton as top-billed in appearances.

Later debates

Following the July 12, 2007 Democratic candidates debate at an NAACP convention, a live microphone caught Clinton discussing in private with third-in-the-polls fellow candidate John Edwards how to get future debates limited to fewer candidates: "We've got to cut the number . . . They're not serious."

Releasing of First Lady records

In July 2007, watchdog group Judicial Watch sued the National Archives over the slow release of documents covering her career as First Lady. Almost 2 million pages of documents held at the Clinton Library had yet to be released from those years; federal archivists stated that the process is slow due to the need to perform redactions due to the law, and likely would extend past the 2008 presidential election. Political consultants said that the unreleased documents might be a rich source for opposition research against Clinton.

This issue intensified with the October 30, 2007 Democratic debate at Drexel University, where Hillary Clinton came under fire about it from MSNBC moderator Tim Russert and from Democratic opponents. Russert displayed a document signed by President Clinton that specifically requested that certain records and communications involving her not be made public until 2012; Hillary Clinton responded to Russert by saying, "That's not my decision to make." A concurrent Newsweek investigation stated that Bill Clinton had requested the archivists hold back a large variety of documents. A few days later, Bill Clinton vigorously defended his wife's responses, saying that Russert's question was "breathtakingly misleading" and that Newsweek's article was off the mark: "She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down." Factcheck.org subsequently concluded that Russert's claim was incorrect, that Bill Clinton had released White House records earlier and in greater numbers than his two immediate predecessors, and that there was not much Hillary Clinton could do to speed up the release of records involving her.

Unveiling of health care plan

On September 17, 2007, Clinton revealed her new American Health Choices Plan, an "individual mandate" universal health care plan that would require health care coverage for all individuals. Clinton explained individuals can keep their current employer-based coverage, or choose an expanded version of Medicare or federal employee health plans. The projected cost of the plan is $110 billion annually and will require all employers to cover their employees' health insurance or contribute to the costs of their employees' health insurance coverage; tax credits will be provided to companies with fewer than 25 employees to help cover costs. She proposed to pay for the plan by cutting government medical costs and by not extending the Bush tax cuts to those making over $250,000 a year.

Clinton emphasized that this was not a reprise of the failed 1993 Clinton health care plan, saying it reflected her experiences and now involved no new government bureaucracy, but Republican opponents disagreed and immediately dubbed it "Hillarycare 2.0". However, many of the health care industry groups that had opposed and funded attacks upon the 1993 plan, were now contributors to Clinton campaigns. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of fellow Democratic candidate John Edwards, said it was too imitative of Edwards' plan, which had come out seven months earlier.

$5,000 for every baby

In September 2007, Clinton suggested that every newborn baby receive $5,000 upon reaching their 18th birthday. Clinton said that with this money, "they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home". In October 2007, Clinton withdrew this proposal and stated it was an idea and not a policy proposal.

Advertisement on care for 9/11 workers

On October 4, 2007 Clinton's campaign began airing television advertisements in Iowa and New Hampshire. The advertisement dealt with Clinton's legislative efforts to address the Ground Zero illness issues of clean-up workers at "the Pile" site of the former World Trade Center. Press reports interpret the ad as an implicit criticism of then-mayor Rudy Giuliani. The ad, filmed in black-and-white, shows an earnest-looking Clinton wearing a paper mask. The voiceover says, "She stood by Ground Zero workers who sacrificed their health after so many sacrificed their lives, and kept standing 'til the administration took action." The ad referred to Clinton's Congressional effort to secure additional funding and medical care for workers who have suffered Ground Zero illnesses, such as cancer and sarcoidosis.

Poor debate performance in Philadelphia

During the course of the 2007 Democratic debates Clinton had established a reputation, even amongst her ideological opponents such as Rich Lowry, as a very solid debater who never made mistakes. However, at the October 30, 2007 MSNBC Democratic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Clinton was the subject of two hours of near-continuous attacks from her Democratic rivals as well as pointed questioning from moderator Tim Russert. This was not unexpected, as leading up to the debate, Clinton had assumed a wide lead in many polls, rival Barack Obama had indicated that he was now going to be more aggressive in pointing out differences between himself and Clinton, and other leading rival John Edwards had too been increasing his statements against Clinton. Adam Nagourney of The New York Times called it "the most eagerly anticipated forum of this year."

In the debate, Clinton suffered her possible first major campaign setback when she engaged in what reporters for The Washington Post termed "a rare night of fumbles," including statements that Jake Tapper of ABC News termed "obfuscatory and less than forthright," making for what Roger Simon of The Politico called "the worst performance of her entire campaign" in which "for two hours she dodged and weaved, parsed and stonewalled." Clinton refused to commit to a position on Social Security, Illegal Immigration, the war in Iraq and the New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's bill to deliver driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Her response on the last issue brought the most criticism, with opponent Senator Christopher Dodd and Edwards immediately saying she had contradicted herself, an assessment echoed by Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News, who wrote that "In the course of two minutes, she gave two different answers while trying to give none at all."

Following the debate, Clinton's opponents seized on the performance. "Senator Clinton offered more of the same Washington calculation, ducking and dodging that won't bring the change America needs," said Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. It also led to continued speculation by Edwards as to her electability, a theme of attackers during the debate. Clinton's own supporters conceded that her performance had not been very good. The following day, however, the Clinton campaign assembled and released a short video entitled "The Politics of Pile On", which showed her debate opponents mentioning her by name over and over. Furthermore, during a November 1 speech at her alma mater Wellesley College, she said that "In so many ways, this all-women's college prepared me to compete in the all-boys' club of presidential politics." This, combined with comments made by some supporters, including remarks by Clinton campaign manager Mark Penn against moderator Russert, led pundits to believe she was playing the "gender card". This in turn led to another round of criticism of Clinton, who had previously stressed her toughness as being one of her strengths as a potential president; Obama pointed out that he had never complained that attacks on him were due to his being African-American. On November 2, Clinton issued a clarification, stating “I don’t think they’re picking on me because I’m a woman, I think they’re picking on me because I’m winning.”. Meanwhile the Edwards campaign assembled and released a video of Clinton's contradictory debate remarks entitled "The Politics of Parsing", which Daily Kos termed "devastating". A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll in the wake of the debate and its attendant publicity found Clinton with a reduced but still substantial lead over Obama and Edwards, while an NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll found her lead to be unaffected; a WNBC-TV/Marist poll found her lead slipping in first primary state New Hampshire. A week after the debate, Clinton said, "I wasn't at my best the other night. We've had a bunch of debates and I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list," but defended her desire to give nuanced responses to questions and reiterated that gender was not an issue in terms of being subjected to political attacks.

Planted questions in Iowa

On November 11, 2007 it was revealed that Clinton campaign staff had prompted certain audience members to ask particular questions of Clinton at a campaign event, and that same staff had suggested to Clinton that they call on this particular audience person. Clinton later said that she was unaware of this happening and would take steps to ensure it would not happen again.

Recovery in the Las Vegas debate

At the next Democratic debate at University of Nevada, Las Vegas on November 15, Clinton rebounded to previous form, aggressively combating Obama's and Edwards' attacks. Democratic strategist Garry South said, "To the degree she might have been stumbling in the last debate, she regained her footing tonight," while ABC News said, "After her roughest two weeks on the presidential campaign trail, [Clinton] showed up on a debate stage in Las Vegas ... with a new aggressive game plan and appeared to successfully get her campaign ship back on course." Her answer to the previously troublesome question of supporting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants was now given in one word: "No."

New Hampshire campaign office hostage-taking

On November 30 2007, a man identified as 47-year old Leeland Eisenberg, armed with road flares strapped to his chest which he claimed were a bomb, entered a Clinton presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire. He took hostage the five people in it, and asked for Clinton, believing she could assist him in gaining mental help. Two hostages were released early on, a woman and her infant. Other hostages were released sporadically. The standoff ended with the suspect's surrender about five hours after the incident began.

At the time of the event, Clinton was in the Washington D.C. area, scheduled to speak at an Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Virginia; she canceled her appearances at public events for the remainder of the day. That evening she flew to Rochester in order to meet with and comfort the hostages, praise the law enforcement officials who handled the situation, and vow not to change her campaign style due to the incident.

December 2007: A tightening contest

By early December 2007 the race between her and Obama had tightened up, especially in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. With real voting less than a month away, Obama was now ahead in some Iowa polls, and had brought in ultra-popular television host Oprah Winfrey to conduct joint campaign rallies in three states before large crowds. Partly in counter of the latter, Clinton brought into Iowa her daughter Chelsea and a very rare campaign appearance from her 88-year-old mother Dorothy Rodham. Veteran political observers such as Bloomberg News' Al Hunt reported that "things are tense in Hillaryland these days," that the camps of Clinton and her husband were at odds, and that the campaign's "plan A" of being the dominating, inevitable, establishment candidate was at risk of failing.

During this time the Clinton campaign asked two volunteer coordinators in Iowa who had forwarded a notorious and completely false Internet chain e-mail claiming Obama was secretly a Muslim to resign from the campaign. A Clinton campaign spokesperson said, "We've made our position on this crystal clear. Our campaign does not tolerate this kind of activity or campaigning. As soon as it came to our attention, we asked this individual to step down." On December 13, 2007, Bill Shaheen, co-chairman of the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire, resigned his position after saying that Obama's admission of past drug use would hurt his chances in a general election matchup: "The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use ... It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome." Shaheen, husband of former Governor of New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen, apologized for his comments. In addition he indicated that "they were not authorized by the campaign in any way." The final Democratic debate before the caucuses was held the same day by the Des Moines Register; it was peaceful and polite among all candidates there.

The two most influential newspaper endorsements for the early states were split: Clinton gain the endorsement of The Des Moines Register, which had endorsed Edwards in 2004, while Obama gained the endorsement of the circulated-in-New Hampshire Boston Globe. Bill Clinton assumed a more central role in his wife's campaign, trying to focus the day-to-day message on her being a "change" agent, while sometimes getting her campaign into further difficulties with his public statements.

By mid-month, prompted by continued high negative ratings in polls, Clinton staged an explicit "likability" drive, using testimonials from friends and constituents on the campaign trail and on a new "The Hillary I Know" website. However, when the close proximity of the first contests to the holidays led to many candidates putting out Christmas videos — allowing them to keep presenting their message but in a more appropriate setting — Clinton chose one that showed her wrapping various "gifts" she would give the country, such as "universal health care" and "bring troops home", with a bit of humor added when she momentarily could not locate "universal pre-K". It was one of the most issue-oriented of the candidate holiday videos.

Caucuses and primaries 2008

See also: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008 and Results of the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries

Iowa

In the initial delegate selection event of 2008, Clinton placed third with 29 percent of the state delegate selections in the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus, finishing behind Barack Obama's 38 percent and nearly tied with John Edwards' 30 percent. In terms of the actual number of delegates that would later be selected to the national convention, the difference between the top three candidates was minor, with Clinton possibly ahead of Edwards. Nevertheless, in terms of damaging her image as the "inevitable" leader in the race and in giving Obama considerable momentum, this was a major blow to Clinton's campaign. She remained upbeat in her remarks that night, saying that "This race begins tonight and ends when Democrats throughout America have their say. Our campaign was built for a marathon, and we have the resources to run a national race in the weeks ahead." The following day, reports described "panic" among some Clinton donors;some Clinton supporters began questioning the soundness of her strategy and the ability of her top campaign advisors, with chief strategist Mark Penn the focus of particular criticism.

New Hampshire

Polling showed a tight race in the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary. While some polls showed a dead heat between Clinton and Obama, January 6 polls conducted by CNN/WMUR-TV and USA Today/Gallup showed Obama jumping ahead by 10 and 13 points respectively after winning Iowa. All of the candidates campaigned in New Hampshire during the four days after the Iowa caucuses, targeting undecided and independent voters in the state.

At the ABC News/WMUR-TV Democratic debate in Manchester on January 5, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards all battled over who best exemplified the buzzword of the campaign, "change", with Obama and Edwards teaming up against Clinton. In one noted exchange, Edwards said that Clinton could not bring change, while he and Obama can. "Any time you speak out powerfully for change, the forces for status quo attack." He made clear that he was referring to Clinton, adding, "I didn't hear these kind of attacks from Senator Clinton while she was ahead. Now that she's not we hear them." Clinton passionately retorted: "Making change is not about what you believe; it's not about a speech you make. It's about working hard. I'm not just running on a promise for change. I'm running on 35 years of change. What we need is somebody who can deliver change. We don't need to be raising false hopes." At another point, when one moderator asked Clinton why polls showed she was less "likeable" than other candidates, particularly Obama, she joked tongue-in-cheek, "Well that hurts my feelings ... but I'll try to go on."

In the wake of the Iowa defeat, the campaign hoped that Bill Clinton could help salvage a win in New Hampshire, where he had achieved a political comeback in his 1992 presidential campaign. As he had in Iowa, the former President campaigned intensively, but his New Hampshire appearances failed to draw large or enthusiastic crowds. On the day before the primary, press reports indicated that Hillary Clinton advisers were pessimistic about the immediate future, thinking it was unlikely she would be able to win either New Hampshire or South Carolina; that same morning, Clinton choked up at a stop in Portsmouth, when after a friendly question from a voter about how she kept going on the campaign trail, she said, "It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do." Later in the day, The Politico reported the Clinton camp had become an internal free-for-all with lines of authority ignored or disrespected, while Talking Points Memo reported on internal debate within the camp about whether to withdraw from the race after a New Hampshire loss, with those in favor arguing that doing so would help preserve her career in the Senate.

On election day, January 8, 2008, seven different polls all had Obama winning, by margins from 5 points to 13 points, with an average of 8.3 points. Elegies were published on the Clinton campaign. Weather was good and voter turnout was reported as heavy all day long, with election officials worried they might run out of ballots; the large turnout was expected to favor Obama. During the day and into the evening there were reports of a major shakeup in Clinton's campaign staff scheduled for the next day, in the wake of an expected loss.

But in a stunning upset that evening, Clinton defied the polls and pundits by defeating Obama in New Hampshire, gaining about 39 percent of the vote compared to Obama's 36 percent. In her victory remarks to supporters that evening, Clinton said, "I come tonight with a full heart. Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice."

In the following days, media outlets engaged in self-examinatory listing of the many faults of their coverage, while pundits advanced dozens of theories to explain the unexpected result. The reason for the comeback that most captured the public imagination was her humanization in the last days of the campaign, in particular the "likeability" issue being raised in the debate and the "choked up" moment in the day before the vote.

Meanwhile, Internet theories sprung up about how the vote counting itself had been suspect, due to discrepancies between machine-counted votes (which supported Clinton overall) and hand-counted votes (which supported Obama overall). Fifth-place finisher Dennis Kucinich's campaign paid $25,000 to have a recount done of all Democratic ballots cast in the primary, saying "It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery." On January 16 the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office began the recount.

Nevada

Because of a party dispute over scheduling, the January 15 Michigan primary lost its delegates to the national convention and Obama and Edwards removed their names from the ballot. Thus, little or no campaigning was done there (in the actual vote, Clinton would win nothing with 55 percent of the vote against 40 percent for an uncommitted slate) and attention instead moved to the January 19 Nevada caucuses. The Clinton campaign benefited from a surge in fundraising after its New Hampshire win, garnering $6 million in new funds.

In Nevada, Obama gained the valuable endorsement of the Culinary Workers Union, whose 60,000 members staff the casinos and resorts of Las Vegas and elsewhere. Clinton countered by appealing to the Hispanic vote in the state, emphasizing that they were at special risk from the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. Meanwhile, a proxy legal battle between Clinton and Obama broke out over the creation of special at-large precincts within nine Las Vegas resorts, which were approved in 2007 to allow casino employees a chance to participate in the caucuses, as many employees could not leave the casinos during voting hours. Clinton supporters said they violated equal protection and one-person-one-vote requirements, and the Nevada State Education Association filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate the casino caucus sites. The organization did not officially endorse Clinton, but many of its top officials have done so. This led Obama to allege that the suit was filed in order to hurt his chances at the caucuses. "Some of the people who set up the rules apparently didn't think we'd be as competitive as we were and trying to change them last minute," he said.

On January 17, a federal judge ruled that the casino at-large caucus plan could go ahead. This was seen as a win for Obama because of the Culinary Workers Union endorsement.

To further complicate matters, the major news and polling organizations decided to not do any polls before the Nevada caucuses, fearing the newness of the caucus, the transient nature of Nevada's population, and more fallout from their bad experience in New Hampshire. In one of the few polls that was conducted, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Clinton was ahead by 9 points.

Clinton finished first in the caucuses on January 19, winning 51% of delegates to the state convention compared to 45% for Obama. After the caucuses, there was dispute over which candidate would send more delegates to the national convention. It appeared that Obama won 13 to Clinton's 12, because the apportionment of delegates is based on county totals. Delegates to the national convention will be determined officially at the April 19 state convention, and the Nevada Democratic Party said that it was not necessarily true that state delegate preferences would remain the same by that time.

South Carolina

Issues of race came to the forefront as campaigning began for the January 26 South Carolina primary, the first to feature a large African American portion in the Democratic electorate. First, in the closing stages of the New Hampshire campaign, Bill Clinton had referred to Obama's claim that he has been a staunch opponent of the Iraq War from the beginning as a "fairy tale," which some subsequently thought was a characterization of Obama's entire campaign. The former President called in to Al Sharpton's radio show to personally clarify that he respected and believed in Obama's viability. Around the same time, Hillary Clinton said regarding Martin Luther King, Jr. to Fox News, "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done," which some African-American leaders took as a denigration of the accomplishments of King and the larger American civil rights movement. Hillary Clinton proceeded to blame Obama for the controversy, claiming his campaign had fanned the flames, a charge which Obama dismissed as "ludicrous". By shortly before, and during, a January 15 Democratic debate in Nevada, Clinton and Obama declared a truce on the matter, with both making reconciliatory statements about race, gender, and each other. However, Clinton's support among African Americans was thought to be damaged, with SUNY Albany's Debra Dickerson stating "The Clintons have to do something dramatic and symbolic to win back the trust of many African-Americans."

In part the tension resulted from the historical coincidence of the first viable female presidential candidate, and the first viable African American candidate, running against each other in the same nomination race, with one bound to lose. One South Carolina pastor lamented that he had been waiting all his life for either "first" to happen, and said, "I really hate that they had to run at the same time in the same election. It just makes what should be a wonderful situation very stressful for folk like me. I never imagined you could have too much of a good thing." Clinton acknowledged that she understood the situation: "I wish it didn't have to be a choice. I think a lot of people who are torn between us feel that way. But it is a contest ..." Feminism and the civil rights movement had a long intertwined history in the United States, with them often working in concert but sometimes opposed; while the bitter 19th century split between Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Frederick Douglass illustrated the latter, the unified opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas had exemplified the former. After the Clinton-Obama tension on this matter, one Democrat said, "After Iowa, Obama was the post-racial candidate who appealed to all of our better natures. Now he's a black politician and she's a woman. And it is back to politics as usual."

Media coverage

An October 29, 2007 study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy found that Clinton had received the most media coverage of any of the some score 2008 presidential candidates, being the subject of 17 percent of all stories. The study found that 27 percent of the stories had a favorable tone towards her, 38 percent had an unfavorable tone, with the balance neutral.

A November 12, 2007 assessment by Michael Crowley of The New Republic of relations between the Clinton campaign and the press found that regarding published stories, "the Clinton media machine [is] hyper-vigilant [and that] that no detail or editorial spin is too minor to draw a rebuke." The Clinton camp was also reported to engage in retribution regarding stories they did not like, complaining to reporters' editors or withholding access in other areas: "Even seasoned political journalists describe reporting on Hillary as a torturous experience." In spite of this, Crowley measured the press corps as giving Clinton "strikingly positive coverage".

By December 2007, the Clinton campaign charged that Obama's campaign was getting much more favorable media treatment than their own, especially once their campaign began faltering. Washington Post media analyst Howard Kurtz found a number of journalists who agreed with the claim, with Mark Halperin, Time magazine's editor-at-large for political news, saying, "Your typical reporter has a thinly disguised preference that Barack Obama be the nominee. The narrative of him beating her is better than her beating him, in part because she's a Clinton and in part because he's a young African American. ... There's no one rooting for her to come back."

After Clinton's loss in Iowa and in the run up to her apparent loss in New Hampshire and campaign collapse to come, negative media coverage of her became intense; as The Politico phrased it in retrospect, "She is carrying the burden of 16 years of contentious relations between the Clintons and the news media. ... Many journalists rushed with unseemly haste to the narrative about the fall of the Clinton machine. Meanwhile, NBC anchor Brian Williams conceded that at least one NBC reporter said regarding Obama, "it's hard to stay objective covering this guy."

Media Matters singled out MSNBC's Chris Matthews for his consistently harsh coverage of Clinton. During the primaries, and especially after the Iowa caucuses, Matthews was openly enthusiastic about Obama's candidacy. The New Republic reported that Matthews was "swooning" over Obama in the days leading up to the January 8 New Hampshire Democratic primary. On the night of that election, Matthews co-anchored MSNBC's coverage. Air America radio host Rachel Maddow and political analyst Patrick Buchanan both noted the high turnout among women, and asserted that the media coverage made Clinton a sympathetic figure to female voters. Buchanan stated that the media had "virtually canonized" Obama and behaved as if he'd been "born in Bethlehem". Maddow told Matthews that several blogs were citing him as "a symbol of what the mainstream media has done to Hillary Clinton." She added that sites such as TalkingPointsMemo.com indicated that voters felt that the media were "piling on" Clinton, and were "coming to her defense with their votes". Matthews replied sarcastically, "My influence in American politics looms over the people. I'm overwhelmed myself." He added, "I will never underestimate Hillary Clinton again." The next day, Matthews appeared on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC morning show and said, "Let's not forget...the reason she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a frontrunner, is that her husband messed around". While this incited more controversy, Matthews noted that Clinton's political career started after she appeared with Senator Chuck Schumer and impressed Democratic leaders with her graceful handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "I thought it was an unexceptional statement," he said. These comments, among others, have led Media Matters to launch a campaign against him and his remarks.

In a January 14 New York Times/CBS News poll, 51 percent of Democratic primary voters thought the media had been harder on Clinton than on the other candidates (with women especially thinking so), while 12  thought the media had been harder on Obama.

Gender

Although Clinton is the 25th woman to run for U.S. president, she is the first female candidate with a real chance of winning the nomination of a major party, and the presidential election. As such, remarks surrounding her gender and appearance have come to the fore.

In March 2006, high-voltage actress Sharon Stone expressed her doubt about Clinton's presidential chances, saying "Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening." On a similar note, on August 9, 2006, the sculpture The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States of America was unveiled at the Museum of Sex in New York and attracted attention for its named focus; sculptor Daniel Edwards hopes it will spark discussion about sex, politics and celebrity.

In October 2006, Clinton's then-New York Senate race opponent, John Spencer, was reported to have commented on how much better Clinton looked now compared to in the 1970s, and speculated that she had cosmetic surgery. On the other hand, syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin never mentions her name without appending a sneering "Her Thighness" to it.

In her Senate career, Senator Clinton is often seen wearing a suit. However, twice in 2006, Clinton was criticized by National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez for showing cleavage while speaking in the Senate. Lopez implored Clinton to be more modest. The Washington Post revisited this question based on a new incident in July 2007, which provoked a widespread round of media self-criticism about whether it was a legitimate topic or not; the Clinton campaign then used claimed outrage at the reporting for fundraising purposes.

By the time the campaign was in full force in December 2007, acclaimed American political scientist Kathleen Hall Jamieson observed that there was a large amount of misogyny present about Clinton on the Internet, up to and including Facebook and other sites devoted to depictions reducing Clinton to sexual humiliation. She also said that "We know that there's language to condemn female speech that doesn't exist for male speech. We call women's speech shrill and strident. And Hillary Clinton's laugh was being described as a cackle," making reference to a flurry of media coverage two months prior about the physical nature and political motivation of her aural indication of amusement. Along this theme, PBS commentator Bill Moyers noted that MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson had said of Clinton, "There's just something about her that feels castrating, overbearing, and scary," and that top-rated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh continued to refer to her as "the woman with the testicle lockbox." Further discussion ensued when the Drudge Report and a few other media outlets ran an unflattering Associated Press photograph of Clinton looking old and tired on the wintry Iowa campaign trail; Limbaugh sympathized with the plight of American women in an appearance-obsessed culture, then asked, “Will this country want to actually watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?”

Following Clinton's "choked up moment" in New Hampshire and surprise victory there the following day, discussion of gender's role in the campaign moved front and center. Women following the campaign recalled a series of criticisms of Clinton, such as the pitch of her voice, a debate moderator's question of whether she was "likeable" (and Obama's reply that she was "likeable enough", felt by some to be condescending), and hecklers' demands that she "iron their shirt", as motivations for re-examining who they would support in the contest. Columnist Meghan Daum of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the "likeability" issue was inextricably associated with gender, as Clinton's "stridency can grate even on those who agree with her ideas" and that "she is visibly salivating from hunger. That may be OK for male candidates, whose appetites tend to be selling points. But if there's anything that's drilled into women's heads before we're old enough to even ask for something, it's the importance of playing hard to get, of pretending we don't want anything at all."

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Endorsements

See also: Congressional endorsements for the 2008 presidential election

Senator Clinton has received many endorsements for her candidacy, including well over 100 from national and top state-level political figures. Many mayors and local politicians, lower state government officials, and other political individuals have endorsed her candidacy.

In addition, Clinton has received the endorsements of these organizations:

• National Organization for Women
• EMILY's List
• Women's Campaign Forum
• New York's United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500.
• Michigan-based International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324
• New York's Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000 AFSCME
• United Transportation Union
• Transportation Communications Union
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
• South Carolina United Transportation Union
• Nevada United Transportion Union
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers California Chapter
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Iowa Chapter
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Nevada Chapter
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• Nevada State Association of Letter Carriers
• Civil Service Employees Association
• Public Employees Federation
• International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
• American Federation of Teachers
• Alabama Democratic Conference

Flyer documenting the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees's endorsement of Clinton. December 2007.

• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
• Amalgamated Transit Union
• IATSE Stage Employees Local 720
• Office and Professional Employees International Union
• National Education Association New Hampshire Chapter
• National Education Association New York Chapter
• Sheet Metal, Air Rail and Transportation Workers SMART
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes
• International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
• The Vinton Eagle weekly newspaper in Benton County, Iowa
• Salmon Press group of weekly newspapers in New Hampshire which includes: The Littleton Courier, Coos County Democrat (Lancaster, NH), Berlin Reporter, Granite State News (Wolfeboro, NH), Carroll County Independent (Conway, NH), Meredith News, Record Enterprise (Plymouth, NH), Winnisquam Echo (Tilton, NH), Gilford Steamer, Baysider (Alton, NH), and The Mountain Ear
• 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
• SEIU Local 32BJ
• The Des Moines Register
• Concord Monitor newspaper in Concord, New Hampshire
• Foster's Daily Democrat newspaper in Dover, New Hampshire
• Laconia Citizen newspaper in Laconia, New Hampshire
• Keene Sentinel newspaper in Keene, New Hampshire
• Washington Blade, an LGBT newspaper in Washington, D.C.
• Quad City Times, newspaper in the Quad Cities in Iowa
• Burlington Hawk Eye newspaper in Burlington, Iowa
• Plymouth Record Enterprise newspaper in Plymouth, New Hampshire
• Las Vegas Sun newspaper in Las Vegas, Nevada
• Cabinet Press group of weekly newspapers in New Hampshire which includes: the Milford Cabinet, Bedford Journal, Hollis Brookline Journal and Merrimack Journal

She also has numerous celebrity endorsements and support for her campaign including those from actors Candice Bergen, Chevy Chase, Michael Douglas and Christine Lahti, former ABC News Anchorwoman Carole Simpson, actress Reese Witherspoon, American home improvement television show host Bob Vila, singers Barry Manilow, Madonna, Actress America Ferrera, Actress Amber Tamblyn, Janet Jackson, American Idol finalist Katharine McPhee, singer Melissa Etheridge, film director Rob Reiner, widow of Frank Zappa Gail Zappa, singer Merle Haggard, actress and comedian Caroline Rhea, singer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, film producers Bruce Cohen and Barbra Streisand, Businesswoman and Television host Martha Stewart, actress Victoria Rowell, novelist Anne Rice, author John Grisham, writer Erica Jong, actress Lynda Carter, actress Elizabeth Taylor, models Christie Brinkley and Marla Maples, talk show hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Jerry Springer, publisher Hugh Hefner, music producer Quincy Jones, Music Executive Clarence Avant, music producer and Founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy, NBA legend and business entrepreneur Magic Johnson, transgender evangelist Sister Paula Nielsen, and poet Maya Angelou. Other entertainment figures who have spoken out in favor of Clinton's candidacy include porn actress Jenna Jameson, rapper 50 Cent, tennis great Billie Jean King, owner of the NBA Charlotte Bobcats and founder of BET Robert L. Johnson, former CEO of the Discovery Channel Judith McHale, film director Steven Spielberg.

Opposition

In addition to the normal criticism from other contenders for the White house, the Clinton campaign has encountered a variety of criticisms directed against her candidacy.

• On May 29, 2007, The New York Times Magazine published an article by former and current Times reporters Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr., detailing inconsistencies and what they saw as dishonest aspects of Senator Clinton's public representations and underlying motives regarding her vote to authorize the Iraq War. The article was adapted from their book Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, which was published the following week.

• In February 2007 The Los Angeles Times reported that several anti-Clinton organizations, including Stop Her Now and Stop Hillary PAC, were preparing "swiftboating" style attacks against her, with venues to include a documentary film, numerous books, and websites. A top Rudy Giuliani donor, Richard Collins, who has also supported George W. Bush for several years, was central in establishing "Stop Her Now."

• Former Bill Clinton fundraiser and ally David Geffen spoke out against Hillary Clinton in an interview with Maureen Dowd, stating that Clinton had no trouble lying and was overproduced and overscripted. The Clinton campaign responded that Barack Obama should return Geffen's money because Geffen's comments reflected negatively on him.

• Hundreds of thousands of users have expressed their opposition to Clinton's candidacy on social networking website Facebook by joining the political group "Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)". It has become one of the largest groups on the website with over 600,000 members as of November 2007.

• In an interview posted in June 2007, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader said that he may run again because he feared 2008's candidates were not good enough. He offered praise for a few candidates, but said of Clinton: "She is a political coward. She goes around pandering to powerful interest groups on the one hand and flattering general audiences on the other. She doesn't even have the minimal political fortitude of her husband." Nader had earlier written in February 2007, "If Hillary Clinton is nominated in 2008 by the Democrats to run for president, they will support her. They will support her even though she is a corporate Democrat who opposes us on the war in Iraq, on real universal health insurance, on the swollen, wasteful military and corporate welfare budget, on a national living wage -- on many of the issues we care about." At that time, Nader said that he would be more likely to enter the race if Clinton won the Democratic nomination.

• Filmmaker Michael Moore includes Clinton in his film Sicko, about the state of the American healthcare system. In the film, Moore says that Clinton is the Senate's second-highest recipient of campaign donations from the health care industry. He said that Clinton friend Harvey Weinstein, whose company provided financing for the film, asked him to remove the scene but Moore refused. Moore said that he had donated to Clinton's first Senate campaign but has since become disillusioned with her.

• On July 25, 2007, political commentator Bill O'Reilly interviewed Clinton Campaign Communications Director Howard Wolfson. O'Reilly criticized Clinton for attending the Yearly Kos convention (put on by the Daily Kos website). After his criticism, Clinton remarked that O'Reilly should "stop smearing grassroot progressives." O'Reilly's objection was to what he saw as obscene posts on the website, some even about the Senator herself. Wolfson responded by alleging the entire community should not be criticized for the actions of a few, citing some questionable and hateful posts on O'Reilly's own site. O'Reilly responded back, saying all such posts are removed immediately upon discovery yet the Kos' website allows them to remain. O'Reilly's contention is that Clinton is trying to curry favor with radical elements on the left and suggested she should distance herself from what he calls hate speech.

  "Now if anyone should be distancing herself from hatred, it is Senator Clinton, who has experienced it firsthand for years. She is making a terrible mistake trying to court the radical left, which despises her. Come election time, independent voters will remember that if the far left ever comes to power in this country, you can kiss the USA as you know it good bye."

• An August 12, 2007 Associated Press article reported the fears of some Democrats that Clinton, as a potentially polarizing individual, could hurt local candidates at the bottom of the ticket. The article describes her "political baggage", with an August 3-5 Gallup Poll showing "a whopping 49 percent of the public [saying] they have an unfavorable view of Clinton, compared to 47 percent who say they hold her in high regard." The article also reports that some Democratic leaders believe she will overcome these negative views. On October 20, 2007 Zogby International released a poll indicating that Clinton had the highest citation (50%) in answer to the question "Whom would you NEVER vote for for President of the U.S.?"

• On December 31, 2007 investigative reporter Robert Parry reported that Clinton had made a deal with the Bush family not to prosecute President George W. Bush's wrong doings upon her becoming president.

Polling

Main articles: General Election Polling and Democratic Primary Polling

In all opinion polls conducted in 2007, the major opponents Clinton faced were Senators Barack Obama and John Edwards. All opinion polls in April 2007 showed Clinton as the Democratic frontrunner, however with different margins: Obama has been listed in third place nationwide with 17% and John Edwards in second place with 19% behind Clinton with 41% according to an Angus-Reid poll, whereas Clinton has been listed in first place with 34% and Obama in second place with 29%, ahead of Edwards with only 15% in a Rasmussen-Reports poll. By May 2007, polls were showing the race even tighter, with Rasmussen Reports showing Obama pulling ahead of Clinton 32% to 30%. But on May 24, 2007, a CBS News/NY Times poll showed Clinton, with 46%, 22 points ahead of Obama, with 24%, and 32 points ahead of Edwards, with 14%. Clinton held her lead over the summer; in September a CNN poll showed her leading Obama 46% to 23%, and in October the same poll showed her commanding majority Democratic support, with 51% compared to Obama's 21% and Edwards' 15%.

On May 4, 2007, a Gallup Poll report showed that since the beginning of the year, her favorable-unfavorable ratio had declined from 58% favorable, 40% unfavorable to 45% favorable, 52% unfavorable.

First six state Democratic primaries and caucuses

Iowa

See also [1][2]

Michigan

See also [3][4]

New Hampshire

See also [5][6]

Nevada

See also [7][8]

Florida

See also [9][10]

South Carolina

From December 2006 to September 2007, there have been numerous opinion polls in the early primary state of South Carolina. In at least four polls (once in each of April, May, June and July 2007), Obama polled ahead of Clinton. However, Clinton's support currently averages about 39% and is building, Obama averages about 29% and is building, and Edwards now averages about 10% and is dropping.
See also [11][12]

See also

• Political positions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

External links

• Official Campaign website
• Video of announcement on YouTube
• HILLARY CLINTON - Astrological Analysis Chart
• Official Hillary Clinton MySpace Profile
• What Hillary Has Learned from '93 on Time.com (a division of Time Magazine)
• Hillary Clinton Parody of the Sopranos
• Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign at Curlie
• Vote 2008: Hillary Clinton - Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
• Spartan Internet Political Performance Index rank for Hillary Clinton by week
• Young Lawyers for Hillary
• Hillary Clinton Poll Numbers - summarized averages of Clinton poll numbers