Clinton: Gender a factor in campaign

Hillary Clinton did not win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but her campaign succeeded in ending any concerns about whether a woman could be commander in chief, she said Sunday.

“Part of what I tried to do in that campaign was to begin to answer that question,” she told The

Des Moines Register. “Now I feel like the question’s been answered.” In 2008, Clinton’s campaign downplayed the fact that she’d be the first woman in the White House. But in 2016 she’s making it a major selling point — that she’s running as a female candidate.

“There is an eagerness that I sense coming at me from people in my audiences, in my conversations, to engage with me about that more than I felt in ’ 08,” Clinton told the Register.

Clinton flew to Iowa on Saturday after her 2016 campaign’s official kickoff rally in New York. On Sunday, she held her first public rally in Iowa, drawing more than 700 people.

In the interview at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Clinton defended the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said she’ll propose improvements to the Affordable Care Act, and expanded on her views about the proposed Trans- Pacific Partnership trade pact.

Clinton said her gender is not the only reason to vote for her, but it is a factor. “I expect to be judged on my merits,” she said, “and the historic nature of my candidacy is one of the merits that I hope people take into account.”

She rejected notions that her presidency would represent a third term of either her husband or of Obama.

“I’m running for my first term. I will have my own proposals,” she said.

She said she’ll have her own ideas for how to make college more affordable, how the country can become a clean energy super power and “so much more.”

Clinton said she will defend the health care law, but over the course of her campaign, she’ll propose fixes, such as “how to deal with the high cost of deductibles.”

On trade she seemed to want to ensure stronger protections for American workers, but it was not clear how she would suggest Democrats handle a stalled trade vote.