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War chest swings open for 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign
(Sunday Times) – The embossed invitations may have said it was a farewell dinner but none of the guests at the Lutyens residence of Sir Peter Westmacott, the British ambassador, believed Washington had seen the last of Hillary Clinton.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, had flown from London to entertain the outgoing US secretary of state, and the 80 guests toasting her with Pol Roger Réserve were as august and bipartisan a group as any gathered for any recent social occasion in the capital.
Hague lauded his American counterpart and referred to “the great unfinished business”. He was talking about global women’s rights but he could just as well have been alluding to a renewed quest for the White House after her defeat in the Democratic primary battle of 2008.
Already the framework of a Hillary 2016 campaign is beginning to take shape. On Friday night, hours after she left government, the website for a “Ready for Hillary” group set up by former aides and activists went live and began accepting donations to a war chest.
Her husband, the former president Bill Clinton, who had attended the embassy dinner with their daughter, Chelsea, is already mobilising big fundraisers and urging her to run. Hillary is to write a memoir — as candidates so often do — and those close to her believe it almost inconceivable that she will not try to finish the task left uncompleted in 2008. …
Among those who have provided “seed money” for the super-Pac is Ann Lewis, a top adviser to Clinton in 2008 and a former senior White House aide. A source close to the super-Pac confirmed that a $500 donation from Lewis would appear in a financial disclosure form.
One former Clinton aide behind Ready for Hillary said “probably 200 former Hillary staffers” had sent messages asking how they could help and NGP Software, which designed the Clinton campaign website in 2008, had been hired to develop the super-Pac website: “The team is ready to get back together. This is as official as unofficial can get.”
Clinton is already the 2016 frontrunner. A recent Public Policy Polling survey gave her a 41-point lead over her nearest Democratic rival, Joe Biden, the vice-president.
In a time of momentous change in the world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sets out on her most heartfelt mission: to put women and girls at the forefront of the new world order.
One of Hillary’s foreign policy jewels Burma – Kachin’s War and human rights
‘Ready for Hillary’ in first sign Clinton will run for President in 2016
Two dedicated Hillary Clinton supporters are launching a campaign to draft the resigning State Secretary to run for president in 2016. The group ‘Ready for Hillary’ filed as a super-PAC (political action committee) with the Federal Election Commission late last week in the first notable effort from an outside group to campaign on Clinton’s behalf.
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Allida Black and Judy Beck, two long-time Clinton supporters who were on Clinton’s Virginia Women’s Steering Committee in 2008 and helped her raise more than $100,000, are spearheading the effort, Washington, D.C.-based newspaper The Hill reports on its blog.
ReadyforHillary SuperPAC spearheaded by two veteran Hillary Clinton fundraisers
Still not convinced? Here is why Hillary will run in 2016
Hillary has exhibited exemplary statesmanship and behind the scenes maneuvering that built coalitions, not just with our allies but with Arab nations as well, resulted in the ousting of Moammar Gadhafi, the toughest sanctions ever brought against Iran, her pressure on Burma to reform and her personal and public support for Aung San Suu Kyi, and her continuing work to change the political and economic rights of women and girls in developing countries.
But to run for President takes more than diplomatic skills; it requires stamina, guts, a tough skin, and political know-how, all of which she has in spades.
Registering websites: hillaryclintonoffice.com IP Address: 74.205.63.1 is the same as her earlier in 2001 registered site HillaryClinton.com
