Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2008
Clinton had been mentioned as a potential candidate for United States President since at least October 2002. She has been ranked among the world's most powerful people by Forbes magazine and Time magazine's Time 100. On January 20, 2007, Clinton announced on her Web site the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, with the intention to become a candidate for president in the United States presidential election of 2008. In her announcement, she stated, "I'm in. And I'm in to win." No woman has ever been nominated by a major party for President of the United States.
Clinton led the field of candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in opinion polls for the election throughout the first half of 2007. Most polls placed Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina as Clinton's closest competitors in the early caucus and primary election states. Clinton set records for early fundraising, which Obama then topped in the following months before Clinton later regained the money lead; but Clinton generally maintained her lead in the polls.
In April 2007, the Clintons liquidated a blind trust that had been established when Bill became president in 1993, in order to avoid the possibility of ethical conflicts or political embarrassments in the trust as Hillary Clinton undertook her presidential race; later disclosure statements revealed that the couple's worth was now upwards of $50 million. In late August 2007, a major contributor to, and "bundler" for, Clinton's campaign, called a "HillRaiser", Norman Hsu, was revealed to be a 15-years-long fugitive in an investment fraud case. He was also suspected of having broken campaign finance law regarding his bundling collections. The Clinton campaign first said it would donate to charity the $23,000 that Hsu personally contributed to her, then said it would refund to 260 donors the full $850,000 in bundled donations raised by Hsu. Hsu was subsequently indicted on new investment fraud charges.
By September 2007, opinion polling in the first six states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses showed that Clinton was leading in all of them, with the races being closest in Iowa and South Carolina. By October 2007, national polls had Clinton far ahead of any Democratic competitor. At the end of October, Clinton suffered what writers for The Washington Post, ABC News, The Politico, and other outlets characterized as a rare poor debate performance against Obama, Edwards, and her other opponents. Subsequently, the race tightened considerably, especially in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, with Clinton losing her lead in some polls by December.
In the first vote of 2008, she placed third with 29.45 percent of the state delegate selections in the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus to Obama's 37.58 percent and Edwards' 29.75 percent. Obama led polls in New Hampshire and gained ground in national polling in the next few days, with a double digit victory predicted by several highly publicized polls for the New Hampshire primary and all major polls predicting an Obama victory, with an average of 8 point margin. However, Clinton gained a surprise win in the New Hampshire primary on January 8, defeating Obama by 39 percent to 37 percent. Explanations for her comeback varied but often centered on her being seen more sympathetically, especially by women, after her eyes welled with tears and her voice broke while responding to a voter's question the day before the election. The nature of the contest fractured in the next few days, when several remarks by Bill Clinton and other surrogates, and one remark by Hillary Clinton concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson, were perceived by many as, accidentally or intentionally, limiting Obama as a racially-oriented candidate or otherwise denying the post-racial significance and accomplishments of his campaign. Despite attempts by both Hillary Clinton and Obama to downplay the issue, Democratic voting became more polarized as a result, with Clinton losing much of her support among African Americans. She lost by a 55–27 percent margin to Obama in the January 26 South Carolina primary, setting up, with Edwards soon dropping out, an intense two-person contest for the twenty-two February 5 Super Duper Tuesday states. Bill Clinton had made more statements attracting criticism for their perceived racial implications late in the South Carolina campaign, and by now his role was seen as damaging enough to her that a wave of supporters within and without the campaign said the former President "needs to stop." On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the largest states, such as California and New York, while Obama won more states and about 20 more delegates, although he trailed Clinton in the total popular vote by more than 50,000 votes.
Obama then won the next twelve caucuses and primaries, often by large margins, and took the overall delegate lead from Clinton. On March 4, Clinton broke the string of losses by winning the Rhode Island primary, Texas primary and Ohio primary, but then lost the Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary during the following week The comments of former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro (who subsequently resigned from the Clinton campaign's finance committee) helped revive the racially-tinged aspect of the contest. Meanwhile, Democratic party leaders expressed concern that the drawn-out campaign between the two could damage the winner in the general election contest against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, especially if an eventual triumph for Clinton was won via party-appointed superdelegates.
Clinton had been mentioned as a potential candidate for United States President since at least October 2002. She has been ranked among the world's most powerful people by Forbes magazine and Time magazine's Time 100. On January 20, 2007, Clinton announced on her Web site the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, with the intention to become a candidate for president in the United States presidential election of 2008. In her announcement, she stated, "I'm in. And I'm in to win." No woman has ever been nominated by a major party for President of the United States.
Clinton led the field of candidates competing for the Democratic nomination in opinion polls for the election throughout the first half of 2007. Most polls placed Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina as Clinton's closest competitors in the early caucus and primary election states. Clinton set records for early fundraising, which Obama then topped in the following months before Clinton later regained the money lead; but Clinton generally maintained her lead in the polls.
In April 2007, the Clintons liquidated a blind trust that had been established when Bill became president in 1993, in order to avoid the possibility of ethical conflicts or political embarrassments in the trust as Hillary Clinton undertook her presidential race; later disclosure statements revealed that the couple's worth was now upwards of $50 million. In late August 2007, a major contributor to, and "bundler" for, Clinton's campaign, called a "HillRaiser", Norman Hsu, was revealed to be a 15-years-long fugitive in an investment fraud case. He was also suspected of having broken campaign finance law regarding his bundling collections. The Clinton campaign first said it would donate to charity the $23,000 that Hsu personally contributed to her, then said it would refund to 260 donors the full $850,000 in bundled donations raised by Hsu. Hsu was subsequently indicted on new investment fraud charges.
By September 2007, opinion polling in the first six states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses showed that Clinton was leading in all of them, with the races being closest in Iowa and South Carolina. By October 2007, national polls had Clinton far ahead of any Democratic competitor. At the end of October, Clinton suffered what writers for The Washington Post, ABC News, The Politico, and other outlets characterized as a rare poor debate performance against Obama, Edwards, and her other opponents. Subsequently, the race tightened considerably, especially in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, with Clinton losing her lead in some polls by December.
In the first vote of 2008, she placed third with 29.45 percent of the state delegate selections in the January 3, 2008 Iowa Democratic caucus to Obama's 37.58 percent and Edwards' 29.75 percent. Obama led polls in New Hampshire and gained ground in national polling in the next few days, with a double digit victory predicted by several highly publicized polls for the New Hampshire primary and all major polls predicting an Obama victory, with an average of 8 point margin. However, Clinton gained a surprise win in the New Hampshire primary on January 8, defeating Obama by 39 percent to 37 percent. Explanations for her comeback varied but often centered on her being seen more sympathetically, especially by women, after her eyes welled with tears and her voice broke while responding to a voter's question the day before the election. The nature of the contest fractured in the next few days, when several remarks by Bill Clinton and other surrogates, and one remark by Hillary Clinton concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson, were perceived by many as, accidentally or intentionally, limiting Obama as a racially-oriented candidate or otherwise denying the post-racial significance and accomplishments of his campaign. Despite attempts by both Hillary Clinton and Obama to downplay the issue, Democratic voting became more polarized as a result, with Clinton losing much of her support among African Americans. She lost by a 55–27 percent margin to Obama in the January 26 South Carolina primary, setting up, with Edwards soon dropping out, an intense two-person contest for the twenty-two February 5 Super Duper Tuesday states. Bill Clinton had made more statements attracting criticism for their perceived racial implications late in the South Carolina campaign, and by now his role was seen as damaging enough to her that a wave of supporters within and without the campaign said the former President "needs to stop." On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the largest states, such as California and New York, while Obama won more states and about 20 more delegates, although he trailed Clinton in the total popular vote by more than 50,000 votes.
Obama then won the next twelve caucuses and primaries, often by large margins, and took the overall delegate lead from Clinton. On March 4, Clinton broke the string of losses by winning the Rhode Island primary, Texas primary and Ohio primary, but then lost the Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary during the following week The comments of former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro (who subsequently resigned from the Clinton campaign's finance committee) helped revive the racially-tinged aspect of the contest. Meanwhile, Democratic party leaders expressed concern that the drawn-out campaign between the two could damage the winner in the general election contest against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, especially if an eventual triumph for Clinton was won via party-appointed superdelegates.
