Does Hillary Clinton have a chance to be the first woman president?
As soon as word leaked out that Hillary Clinton would announce her campaign for the presidency, Republicans launched a “Stop Hillary” effort, citing “a trail of secrecy, scandal and failed liberal policies that no image consultant can erase.”
She will be a formidable candidate. Will she be so formidable as to have little or no opposition for the Democratic nomination?
Will she be able to overcome negatives from her long time in the spotlight, from her politically active days as the wife of the president to the Benghazi raid to the recent email controversy?
Hillary has a huge support base and will enjoy the freedom of not having to endure the bombardment of allegations from opponents in her own party, as will unfortunately happen during the Republican nomination process. So, those believing in Hillary will back her to the end, and no amount of intelligent reasoning to the contrary will change their misguided beliefs.
— Patrick Jenkins, Arlington
I don’t believe she’ll be able to overcome her negatives. There are too many.
Should she receive the Democratic nomination, I think she would be defeated by a large margin.
— George J. Anthony, Fort Worth
People who vote for her because they like her policies are good citizens. Voting for her because of her gender is sexist and irresponsible.
— Jack Russell, North Richland Hills
I was in the U.S. Navy for more than 21 years. I visited U.S. diplomatic missions in Taiwan, Tunisia, Haiti, the Netherlands and Japan.
The U.S. missions have very small security staffs of 20 to 24 troops.
They cannot hold out against 120 enemy troops without help from the host country, which is supposed to assist with defense of the mission.
So don’t blame the events in Benghazi on Hillary Clinton.
— John A. Hill Jr., Arlington
I hope the voters will consider her previous actions and the involvement in various scandals.
After the past six-plus years, we need some integrity in Washington.
— Walter H. Delashmit, Justin
Hillary Clinton’s ability to overcome is a function of the mainstream media. In the 1990s they spun, lied by omission and otherwise covered for her and will do so this time because they cannot help themselves.
The Democrats and their media are further left than they were in the 1990s, so the wild card is will they dump Clinton for the hard-left Elizabeth Warren.
— Burt E. Ballentine, Keller
Is Hillary Clinton all the Democratic Party has to offer America? Is the bench so bereft of qualified candidates that we are stuck with someone whom columnist William Safire of The New York Times once called “a congenital liar”?
— Rick Weintraub, Arlington
Some items about the Clinton email scandal lead to serious questions that need answers.
Congress needs to investigate.
It needs to appoint at least 27 congressional committees and several special prosecutors.
With luck, maybe Congress could successfully impeach itself and they could all go get jobs in a circus.
— Larry Mason, Azle
Hillary has a long, long track record of turning a blind eye to blatant red flags of danger, controversy or hypocrisy.
After so many years, she is in perpetual denial. Her mistake is chronically putting on rose-colored glasses and deluding herself and the public.
Her marriage to Bill is a “power marriage” with no aphrodisiac except egotism and power.
— James A. Marples, Longview
Hillary Clinton is the most prepared person ever seek the presidency.
The question in the primaries is how effectively she can reach out to liberals, who consider her too hawkish and too tied to Wall Street, and in the general how effectively she can appeal to independent moderates, minorities, women and young people.
— Mark Greene, Fort Worth
Using a campaign contribution database provided by OpenSecrets, I found that Hillary’s top five donors in the 2008 election cycle were Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, MetLife, Time Warner and JPMorgan Chase, all multibillion-dollar megacorporations, with donations totaling nearly a million dollars.
How can she claim to fight corporate campaign contributions when her campaign rests on corporate shoulders?
— Will Johnson, Carrollton
Why Hillary Clinton? The answer is her husband and Democrats hoping for the “second coming of Bill Clinton.”
He was the most successful president of the past 70 years.
Criteria of success: peace, prosperity, fiscal responsibility and functional government.
Eight years of no patriots killed in battle, soaring prosperity, a budget surplus the final year.
No other president comes close to that.
— Steve Hadley, Benbrook
All Points each Monday features reader responses to a question posed by the Editorial Board. With each week’s responses comes the next week’s question. All Points responses are not counted toward the monthly limit of one letter to the editor from each writer. Readers are welcome to send their own ideas for All Points topics to Editorial Director Mike Norman, mnorman@star-telegram.com.
This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Does Hillary Clinton have a chance to be the first woman president?."