WASHINGTON: On the International Women’s Day, Hillary Clinton’s campaign urged Americans to elect their first woman president in 2016.

On the same day, US President Barack Obama also issued a statement, reminding Americans that women across the world were already making “immeasurable contributions.”

“They are entrepreneurs, farmers, educators, scientists, artists, soldiers, mothers, heads of state – the list is endless,” he said.

At the University of Miami, the former US Secretary of State and the former First Lady, told her supporters that more work needed to be done to improve women’s participation.

“We’ve gotten more women to contribute to the economic well beings of their families but they’re by no means where they should be,” she told the crowd.

President Obama went a step ahead and declared that without women’s participation, “economies would collapse, political systems would deteriorate, and families and communities would fall apart.”

And recent opinion polls show that so far Hillary Clinton is ahead of male candidates for the 2016 elections.

A survey by Public Policy Polling group shows that she leads all potential Republican candidates by 7-10 points nearly two years before the election.

In the polling, they matched her up with potential Republican candidates. The results showed that she’s up 7 against Rand Paul, Rick Perry and Marco Rubio, 8 over Chris Christie and Scott Walker and 10 over Jeb Bush.

But this does not assure Ms Clinton a smooth ride to the White House.

Support for her declined considerably this week as the US media reported that while serving as the secretary of state, she often used her private, insecure email account for official purposes.

A survey by the right-wing Fox News channel shows that a growing numbers of Americans were turning away from her.

About 44 per cent of 1,011 registered voters polled said she was irresponsible. This showed a drop of 10 percentage points from the 54 percent who in April 2014 said Ms Clinton was honest and trustworthy.

Yet, more than half of respondents in the Fox News poll said they still considered her honest and trustworthy.

Nearly 70 per cent in the most recent poll also said they believed Ms Clinton was patriotic. Unlike many European and Asian nations, the world’s sole superpower has not yet elected a woman president. Barack Obama is the country’s first non-White president.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2015

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