United States Presidential election is more than year away but if you look at the present political scene you will see that for the candidates it's just round the corner.
On the Democrats side there are three major candidates: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Looking at the amount of money they have be able to rise and at the poll numbers, Clinton is leading the pack with Obama and Edwards following closely.
All three candidates have tried their best to explain their plans on issues like health care, immigration and also war in Iraq. Yes, they are getting lot of air time for their positions and now people are beginning to form an opinion about the candidates.
Talking about forming opinions, public persona of Hillary Clinton concerns me. She is trying too hard to be the "perfect" candidate. She is trying to project herself as the very best in every issue, from social security to Iraq war and we all know that is next to impossible. Also, she is staying away from contentious issue in an effort to preserve her "perfect" image. It is clear with coming days where Congress is battling White House on Iraq and budget issue, she will have to "come out" and face the tough scene.
Being a woman, Hillary's candidacy excites me a lot. She has real chances of winning and if she does, it will be a great victory for women in America and also around the world. But if she continues in the path where she is trying to hard to be perfect and avoid real challenging issues, it will hurt her chances badly.
In coming days, I hope she will change her strategy and come with plan to face the big issues and not be the Stepford candidate she is now.
