‘ I’ll be a champion’ of regular Americans

Hillary Rodham Clinton finally ended speculation Sunday about the nation’s worstkept secret: She’s running for the White House, again.

“I’m running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and Iwant to be that champion,” she tweeted at 3: 28 p. m.

The wealthy former secretary of state, who like her husband has earned millions of dollars from paid speeches, nevertheless touted herself as a “champion” of workingclass Americans still struggling to pull themselves out of the nation’s economic malaise.

“Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times,” Clinton said in a video posted on her Web site.

“But the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion so you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead and stay ahead, because when families are strong, America is strong.”

The announcement, and the anticipation that preceded it, dominated social media most of the day — but it wasn’t necessarily good news for Clinton, as the hashtag #WhyImNotVotingForHillary topped Twitter’s trending list for hours.

Clinton, 67, was scheduled to announce online at noon. But after an unexplained threehour delay she was upstaged by her own campaign chairman, John Podesta, who sent an email announcing the bid to veterans of Clinton’s 2008 campaign, donors and fundraisers just before 3 p. m. Republicans pounced. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, expected to seek the Republican nomination, tweeted, “As Secretary of State @HillaryClinton was the architect of the failed foreign policy we’re seeing executed by President Obama today.”

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who launched his 2016 campaign last week, began selling merchandise stamped with the slogan “Liberty not Hillary.” Additional reporting by Sophia Rosenbaum