Hillary Rodham Clinton was a prominent United States presidential candidate back in 2008 but she had to bow down to President Barack Obama in the end.
But as 2016 draws near, talks of her presidential aspirations are rampant again, and this time, the democrats seem to place strong confidence in this powerful female political figure.
The Christian Science Monitor shared a recent poll released by the Quinnipiac University on Thursday, which showed that 61 percent of likely Iowa Democratic voters would place their bet on the former secretary of State.
This is quite the turnaround from the same poll the university conducted in 2008, which only had her in third place.
"The Democratic race in the Iowa Caucuses a year before the voting can be summarized pretty succinctly: Hillary Clinton is the huge favorite," noted Quinnipiac University Poll Assistant Director Peter A. Brown . "If she chooses not to run, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Joseph Biden are likely to begin at the top of a pack with other candidates scrambling to get into the race."
Meanwhile, the Washington Post has observed that her possible campaign might steer her gender into the limelight, since she failed to do so in 2008. But the news agency believes this is a bad idea.
"First, she didn't lose last time because she failed to run as a woman; she lost because her campaign messed up some of the mechanics and ran into a once-in-a-generation, if not lifetime, political phenomenon, Barack Obama," the agency noted.
And while her gender did benefit her candidacy at some points, women tend to identify more with her every time she's pegged down as an underdog.
Her stand on gay marriage might affect her candidacy as well. Hillary openly supports gay marriage, but she has also said that it is up to the states to decide whether this should be approved or not.
The Boston Globe reported that things have only gotten more complicated for Hillary since her husband, former President Bill Clinton signed into law several legislations that gay-rights groups oppose, including the Defense of Marriage Act. This law prohibits same-sex couples from receiving federal marriage benefits, but the Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional in 2013.
Another sensitive issue Hillary is dealing with is abortion, which she approves of. She is among the pro-abortion candidates, and will even attend the gala hosted by radical abortion group Emily's List on March 3.
