No doubt everyone already knows a bit about Ms Hillary Clinton. She’s the Senator of New York and the former First Lady of the United States. If elected, Clinton will be the first female president. Her poll numbers of late have been going up and down - having lost 11 polls in a row, she came back with huge numbers this month. Hillary as president would also give former president Bill Clinton the inaugural title of "first gentleman", and she did say that the U.S would be getting "two for the price of one".

Bill's presence, however, may in some ways be more of a hindrance than a help. During this year, the Clinton camp has been adamant that Barrack Obama’s campaign is getting more favourable media treatment than their own. Mark Halperin, Time magazine’s editor-at-large for political news, said, “Your typical reporter has a thinly disguised preference that Barack Obama be the nominee. The narrative of him beating her is better than her beating him in part because she’s a Clinton and in part because he’s a young African American.”

Highlights of Hilary Clinton's campaign and political positioning:

On Middle Eastern relations

On April 26, 2007, Hillary appeared with seven other Democratic candidates on the first debate of the campaign. Of her initial Senate vote to approve the US role in the Iraq War, she stated, “If I knew then what I know now, I would not have voted that way… If this president does not get us out of Iraq, when I’m president I will.”

Clinton has also stated that she is “an emphatic, unwavering supporter of Israel’s safety and security.” She has spoken at pro-Israeli rallies, saying that Palestinians control terrorism, and has urged them to change their textbooks to take out any exremist and racist references.

Humanitarian Intervention and Human Rights

In the past, Clinton has expressed regret that the international community failed to effectively intervene in the 1990s during the Rwandan Genocide and early in the Bosnian War. When asked whether U.S troops should be sent to Darfur, however, Clinton focused more on sanctions than American military intervention, and said that “American ground troops I don’t think belong in Darfur at this time.”

On the other hand, Clinton has been quoted as connecting U.S. security with human rights issues elsewhere in the world. With regard to Pakistan, she has said, “The first obligation of the president of the United States is to protect and defend the United States of America. That doesn’t mean that it is to the exclusion of other interests, and there’s absolutely a connection between a democratic regime in Pakistan and heightened security for the United States.”

Social Policy

Clinton supports the death penalty, and has made a note of this during both this presidential campaign and her 2000 senate campaign. She has also, however, sponsored the Innocence Protection Act, which requires DNA testing before administering federal executions.

Abortion is a hot topic right now, and as a female trying to enter the Whitehouse, her political position is important. Clinton has said that even if she is personally opposed to abortion, she does not believe it should be illegal. Because of this, she has been a supporter of the legal right of women to end their pregnancies this abortion. She believes that the availability of birth control and sex education will reduce unwanted pregnancies and the number of abortions, saying, “This debate shouldn’t be about ideology, but about science and facts.”

Gender

Much media has focused on the fact that Clinton is a woman. Although she is the 25^th woman to run for US presidency, she is the first female candidate with a real chance of winning the nomination of a major party and the presidential election.

American communication studies professor Kathleen Hall Jamieson observed that there was a large amount of misogyny present about Clinton on the internet, reducing Clinton to sexual humiliation. Following Clinton’s well-known emotional moment in New Hampshire when she cried, supposedly because of her passion for the future of America, there was a lot of discussion on gender roles and strengths.

Even Vogue’s infamous editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has waded into the gender debate, writing, “Imagine my amazement, then, when I learned that Hillary Clinton, our only female presidential hopeful had decided to steer clear of our pages at this point in her campaign for fear of looking too feminine. The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying. How has our culture come to this? The Washington Post recoils from the slightest hint of cleavage on a senator? This is America, not Saudi Arabia.”