America
Hillary Clinton begins second 'rendezvous with destiny'
By
By Arun Kumar
Washington, June 13 (IANS)
Hillary Clinton began her
second "rendezvous with destiny" with a promise to make new policies
designed to benefit the middle class if she is elected America's first
woman president.
Addressing the first major rally of her 2016
presidential run from New York City's Roosevelt Island in a state that
she represented as senator for eight years after as many years as First
Lady, she said "America can't succeed unless you succeed".
Wearing
a blue pant suit, with husband Bill Clinton in a red T-shirt and
daughter Chelsea standing among a cheering crowd by the side of an
H-shaped blue stage with a red arrow like her campaign logo, she
declared "Democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations".
"Prosperity
can't be just for CEOs and hedge fund managers," she told the crowd of
supporters waving paper US flags and chanting "Hillary, Hillary".
"Prosperity
and democracy are part of your basic bargain, too," said the Democratic
frontrunner invoking both her husband Bill Clinton and President Barack
Obama, whom she served as Secretary of State for four years after a
hard fought battle with her 2008 rival.
"You brought our country
back. Now it's time, your time, to secure the gains and move ahead. And
you know what? America can't succeed unless you succeed."
Invoking
President Franklin Roosevelt's famous remark "This generation of
Americans has a rendezvous with destiny", Clinton noted America's
longest serving president had "called on every American to do his or her
part and they answered".
"It's America's basic bargain -- if you
do your part, you ought to be able to get ahead," she said. "When
everybody does their part, America ought to be able to get ahead too."
Clinton slammed Republican opponents with an extended riff on the Beatles song "Yesterday".
"There
may be some new voices in the Republican choir," she said of the
party's 2016 field. "But they're all singing the same old song. It's a
song called 'Yesterday'. They believe in yesterday."
"These
Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes and less
regulations for wealthy corporations without any regard for what that
will do to income inequality," she said.
Since announcing her
candidacy in April, Clinton had so far addressed only low-key and small
roundtable events in the first states to vote in the presidential
primaries -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Supporters began lining up at 6.30 a.m. for a rally that wouldn't begin until five hours later, according to CNN.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])