Hillary’s second presidential bid

Bill and Hillary Clinton went to a gas station to fill up. Surprisingly, the gas station owner was Hillary’s ex-boyfriend. When Bill said, “Just think what life would be if you hadn`t married me,” Hillary said, “"Well, I guess he`d be President.” This is an American joke that shows who Hillary Clinton is.

Unlike other first ladies who helped their husband and did volunteer work, Hillary Clinton had a different life. She was a famous lawyer, launching an election campaign “Two for one” when Bill Clinton was a presidential candidate. When he became president, he allowed her to take care of a healthcare reform plan. Although it was not much different from the Obamacare, the Republican-controlled Congress voted the bill down and it gave her a wild image.

What saved her was the Lewinsky scandal. Though she must have been hurt a lot, she had sided with her husband and blamed the Republican attack as conspiracy. Her confidence and experiences in national affairs became her political assets when she ran for a Senate seat representing the New York state. As a successful politician, she ran for president in 2008 only to lose to Mr. Obama who called for a “change” in the Democratic primaries. As America’s first African-American president, President Obama embraced her by nominating her as a state secretary.

She officially announced her second presidential bid on Sunday. As if she thinks she lost the previous presidential election because of her ambitious and aristocratic image, she humbly appeared presenting herself as a “champion of the middle class” in a Twitter video this time. She has more experiences now than eight years ago, but she has too strong name recognition and is old (68 years old). Nevertheless, people say that it will take another hundred years to have a female candidate with such background in the U.S. The presidential race is getting more interested in the U.S. – whether Mrs. Clinton will be America’s first female president and the Clintons will be the first presidential couple.

shchung@donga.com