HILLARY CLINTON IS on the road, in a van.
While you could argue she’s been working towards the presidency her whole life, she’s now officially in campaign mode and is making her way to Iowa where the first votes will be cast about 10 months from now.
The Iowa caucus is likely to be held at the beginning of next February 2016 and Clinton started the journey towards the mid-west from her Brooklyn campaign HQ last night.
Clinton herself, apparently, made the late decision to travel by road instead of air. It would seem to chime with the rather predictable video that yesterday announced the 67-year-old’s candidacy.
Working families are always the prized battleground for presidential candidates and the term ‘middle-America’ will be thrown about like confetti over the course of the next 18 months.
The video showed Americans of different ages, ethnicities and sexualities but there was a common theme among them. The aspirations of family and employment.
Whether this was the two Spanish-speaking brothers shown setting up a business together or the blue-collar worker taking over a family business. It all tried to show an America that is rebuilding and refreshing itself after the economic crash.
The message is one that’s pretty well-worn but Clinton seemed to be attempting to put a slight twist on it to suit her image.
She’ll try to present herself as someone who has already experienced the ups and downs of life but hasn’t let that stop her embarking on a new challenge.
Clinton’s image is already more defined in the American consciousness than perhaps any other candidate in recent history, so embracing that is not so much a tactic but a realistic necessity.
Obama’s ‘Change we can believe in’ certainly would’t fit a Harvard educated, former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State.
Clinton came up against a juggernaut in the shape of Barack Obama eight years ago but even then she allowed herself be outflanked on the left by the then Illinois Senator.
Since then, having been a busy Secretary of State and filled out her conservative credentials on foreign policy, Clinton may be a little less concerned about appealing to right-leaning voters.
This could be seen in yesterday’s campaign video which featured two same-sex couples.
In the past, Clinton has been slow to champion LGBT marriage rights, a decision she perhaps took more because of political realities than personal convictions.
Yesterday though, any such concerns were ignored and marriage equality was shown to be central to her message.
With a lack of credible opposition so far in the Democratic field, and potential contenders like liberal favourite Elizabeth Warren declining a run, Clinton strategists may feel that they have to do something to rouse grassroot members.
Something, at least, has to encourage people to pay the bills:
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