As of Sunday, Hillary Clinton is officially running for president in 2016. This is her second attempt to gain control of the Oval Office, but this time something that could be perceived as her flaw may turn into a strength.
“I hope you’ll join me on this journey,” said Hillary Clinton at the end of the video, featuring the stories of “everyday Americans,” announcing the launch of her presidential campaign.
Her campaign has been rumored for years, beginning shortly after President Obama’s second term commenced, and for the past few months the public has considered it fact that the former first lady and secretary of state would seek the Democratic nomination.
So what did we learn from this video? We learned that she wants to connect with everyday, working-class citizens. We learned that she wants to fight for people that are not afforded elite advantages. And we learned that she wants to help Americans “get ahead and stay ahead.”
Clinton could be labeled as a career politician who is simply moving up the ladder. She started as the first lady of Arkansas when her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was the state’s governor.
After her stint in the White House, she embarked on her own career in 2000 as the first female senator from New York, and then transitioned to the executive branch where she served as the secretary of state for President Obama’s first term.
Now she has launched her second bid for the White House. She has been in the national spotlight since 1992 and the public has, quite frankly, become tired of hearing her name.
Why should any voter believe she seeks the presidency for anything other than prestige and honor? What is different about this campaign?
There is nothing different about her. Her granddaughter is the difference. The birth of Charlotte and the ensuing reorientation of Clinton’s motivation have allowed her to reinvent herself and show herself as more human.
On September 3, 2014 at 7:03 p.m., Clinton’s granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky was born.
In the new epilogue to her book “Hard Choices” Clinton writes: “Becoming a grandmother has made me think deeply about the responsibility we all share as stewards of the world we inherit and will one day pass on. Rather than make me want to slow down, it has spurred me to speed up.”
Clinton says that she wants the presidency. She wants the pressure, the long hours and the doubts that come with the highest office in the country. And she says it’s because she feels the responsibility to leave a better world for her granddaughter.
That is what makes her different from the other potential candidates. She has someone she is working for. A real, tangible, biologically-related reminder of why she is doing what she is doing.
Yes, other candidates are fathers, grandfathers, aunts or uncles, but simply being a grandparent is not Clinton’s advantage. Her advantage is that her granddaughter has made her relatable.
Her granddaughter has transformed her from the shrewd, calculating, isolated career politician to a kind, loving, relatable woman who just so happens to have years of legislative and executive experience at her disposal.
Clinton’s granddaughter has changed her greatest weakness— her number of years in Washington and the spotlight — into her most powerful weapon, and may well have won her my vote, as well as America’s.