Hillary Clinton Is Now Touted

Hillary Clinton is now touted as one of the strongest democratic candidates for the 2008 elections. Whenever Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned, Bill Clinton and his politics naturally come to mind. However, Hilary's life as a political candidate began with a declaration of independence from Bill as she announced her senate bid at the upstate New York farm. When initially there were speculations about Hillary running for presidency, there were no definite answers but Democrats kept talking about a fresh face for the presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton's name finally surfaced for democrats. Talking of fresh faces Barack Obama's name also came when he was on a book tour. Well, including other candidates in the race, many predict better chances for Hillary Clinton. "A presidential primary could be different, in part because Hillary is tough, experienced and may evoke a pride among women voters that no other congressional candidate could" (Alter, 2007).

Social Security: America adopted social security policy more than 70 years ago and today it has become a constant part of the policy as well as the society. Many people have reaped benefits by earning Social Security protection in the form of retirement, survivors and disability benefits. Hillary Clinton also considers Social Security as one of the greatest inventions in American democracy, and vows to guard & shield it. She is against the schemes of privatization.

Health Care Reform: Hillary Clinton has been a staunch supporter of Health Care Reforms till the time when she was the First Lady. She supports the idea of federal universal access to health care by subsidizing insurance premiums for those unable to pay. At same time she has adopted a stance against single-payer health care system.

Tax Cuts or Increases: She and all other democratic candidates have criticized President Bush's tax cuts and hold the opinion of reinstating some taxes that had been cut. Publicly, she has maintained that the 2001 and 2003 tax relief didn't benefit middle and working class families and called higher taxes beneficial for country for making it strong.

War in Iraq: Hillary Clinton has been critic of heavy deployment in Iraq considering administration's Iraq policy as a mess and favors withdrawing troops in a systematic way so that they can be completely out in a year. Though she did not oppose Iraq war but yet she does not favor the handling of the relevant issues by the Bush administration. "Bush surrounded himself with the national security experts- Dick Cheney, Collin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. He still got the country stuck in the quagmire of Iraq and is deeply unpopular at home and abroad. Hillary Clinton says she will restore her husband's foreign policy" (Wolfe, 2007).

Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage: Hillary Clinton has voiced her concern regarding the use of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, for the storage of nuclear waste. People living in Nevada are strongly opposed to the use of the mountain because it would hurt them in the long-term. When Bush Administration recently announced that it would reintroduce legislation to store in Yucca Mountain, Hillary Clinton did not mince words in showing her opposition and urged to find a safe, secure long-term waste storage solution.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR):

Bush administration has been criticized for favoring drilling operations in the Wild Life Refuge while Hillary Clinton has not been in favor of drilling there. She has called for limited (safe) drilling and injecting more money and efforts into research for of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other alternates.

Gay Marriage: Hillary Clinton is a popular candidate among the gay circles. She has been known to have gay friends. The support of Clinton's for gay equal rights is not hidden for anyone. As far as gay marriages are concerned she has not adopted a positive and assertive response yet calls for equal rights. She has also held fund-raisers with major gay and lesbian donors. "Clinton has earned 48% of the contribution from heavily gay ZIP codes nationally, compared with 39% for Barack and 13% for John Edwards" (Darman, 2007).

Gun Control: Since Hillary has been actively voicing her opinions for different issues right from the 90s when she became the First Lady and that includes her views on gun control. In the beginning of the decade of 90s Hillary supported a federal ban on semi-automatic firearms. Though, her position is not completely anti-arms as she favors keeping them for personal safety. She also demonstrated her point-of-view when she voted against the 2006 Vitter Amendment, which prohibits the funding of the confiscation of lawfully-held firearms during a disaster.