Former First Lady of the United States (U.S.), Senator Hillary Clinton, has been running for president for weeks, but that was just her warm-up act.
The former Secretary of State formally launched her bid to become the nation’s first female president Saturday, with a campaign rally attended by thousands of supporters on New York’s Roosevelt Island.
Clinton served in a key post in the administration of one president, her 2008 rival Barack Obama; she’s married to another former president, Bill Clinton.
By choosing the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park as the site to kick off her second White House run, Clinton is trying to tie herself to the legacy of a third U.S. president and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, one of her role models.
“President Roosevelt called on every American to do his or her part and they answered,” Clinton said.
“It’s America’s basic bargain – if you do your part, you ought to be able to get ahead,” she said. “When everybody does their part, America ought to be able to get ahead too.”
Clinton hit on populist themes throughout her speech, saying she wants to fight for all Americans.
“America can’t succeed unless you succeed,” she told listeners. “Democracy can’t be just for corporations and billionaires. It’s your time to secure gains and move ahead. That’s why I am running for president of the United States of America.”
“I’m not running for some Americans but all Americans,” Clinton said. “We’re problem solvers, not deniers. We don’t hide from change, we harness it.”
Clinton slammed Republican opponents with an extended riff on the Beatles song “Yesterday.”
“There may be some new voices in the Republican choir,” she said of the GOP’s 2016 field. “But they’re all singing the same old song. It’s a song called ‘Yesterday.’ They believe in yesterday.”
“These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes and less regulations for wealthy corporations without any regard for what that will do to income inequality,” she said.
Clinton pledged to do what it takes to keep the country safe, and gestured toward the rebuilt World Trade Center behind her.
“When our brave men or women come home from war, I’ll see to it that they get not just the thanks of a grateful nation, but the care and benefits they deserve,” she said.
“I was in the situation room on the day we got Bin Laden,” Clinton noted.
“We all know that in order to be strong abroad, we have to be strong at home.”
Clinton also railed against the “endless flow of secret, endless money” in politics.
“We need justices on the Supreme Court who will protect every citizens’ vote, rather than every corporation’s attempts to buy elections,” Clinton said.
“I’ll fight back against Republican efforts to disenfranchise and disqualify young people, poor people, disabled people and people of color,” she said.
“What part of democracy are they afraid of?” she asked of Republicans.
Clinton noted her unique position as not only a woman candidate, but a former first lady.
“I know how hard this job is,” she said of the presidency. “I have seen it up close and personal.”
“I may not be the youngest candidate in this race,” Clinton said. “But I will be the youngest woman president in the history of these United States.”
“And the first grandmother as well,” she quipped.
In a nod to the importance of the youth vote, California indie rock band Echosmith attempted to fire up the crowd with a set list that included their hit “Cool Kids.”
Timothy Kelly, a Pennsylvania native and music student at Temple University, sang the National Anthem.
And the Brooklyn Express Drumline, comprised of young minorities from some of Brooklyn’s underserved neighborhoods, performed as well.
*Culled from MSN News
