Democratic field grows after Hillary joins presidential race

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - One day after Senator Hillary Clinton tossed her hat into the 2008 presidential race, the crowded field of US presidential contenders expanded, setting up a pitched battle for donors and support.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson joined the growing list of Democratic contenders Sunday, announcing on ABC television's "This Week" program that he would form a presidential exploratory committee.

Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary, is seeking to become the first Hispanic to occupy the White House.

His announcement however, was overshadowed this weekend by Clinton's long-anticipated entry into the race, setting up what promises to be one of the most exciting and groundbreaking political contests in US history.

The race so far pits Clinton -- angling to become the country's first female US president -- against fellow Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), who is vying to be the first African-American in the White House.

"I'm in. And I'm in to win," Clinton said in a video announcement on her website Saturday, four days after Obama announced the creation of his own committee to test the waters and start raising money.

But questions remain over whether Clinton is electable, given the strong antipathy many feel toward her, stemming from her time as an untraditional and outspoken first lady.

Republican Senator Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), a staunch conservative, also entered the ring over the weekend, vowing to fight against abortion and same-sex marriage.

The flurry of announcements came with the first crucial state-based primary elections still 12 months away, votes that will decide the Democratic and Republican party nominees who battle for the White House in November 2008.

Clinton, 59, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, ended years of speculation over her political ambitions with her announcement Saturday.

"The frontrunner has just stepped on the stage," said Washington's veteran political analyst Charlie Cook.

"This is the first woman in our history who will be taken seriously by everyone," said political scientist Ruth Mandel of Rutgers University.

Despite her front-runner status in polls and fundraising, Clinton is sometimes described as a polarizing figure, prompting strong emotions among her supporters and many critics.

While ahead in the polls, her tendency to divide voters leaves the race wide open with Obama, former senator John Edwards and others angling to demonstrate they have a better chance to defeat the Republican challenger.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Saturday based on voters surveyed before her announcement, Clinton outpaced Obama 41 percent to 17 percent in the contest for the Democratic nomination.

A Gallup poll taken a week ago put Clinton ahead with backing from 29 percent of Democratic voters, compared with 18 percent for Obama and Edwards at 13 percent.

But A CBS News poll at the beginning of January pointed to her big weakness: 38 percent of all voters, and a whopping 78 percent of Republicans, have a decidedly unfavorable view of Clinton. The results suggest that in a country closely divided between the two parties she might not have the ability to woo the Republican and independent voters necessary for a victory in 2008.

She has also taken heat from the left over her 2002 Congress vote authorizing President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, but she has refused to recant her decision.

"I don't think you get do-overs in life," Clinton told CNN in an interview broadcast Sunday. "I think you take responsibility for the decisions that you make and you try to make the situation better, which is what I've been trying to do consistently."

Clinton's White House bid signals not just the start of the contest for votes, but for donations, in the money-driven US campaign system.

The New York Times reported Sunday that one big-name donor, billionaire philanthropist George Soros, sent the maximum donation 2,100 dollars, to Obama, just hours after the Illinois senator's announcement.

Any presidential candidate will need to raise tens of millions of dollars between now and the November 2008 balloting to be competitive.

Meanwhile, Richardson, 59, said Sunday that he believed his centrist politics would appeal to a broad cross section of the American electorate.

"The next president must be able to make us energy independent, must be able to make schools better, create jobs, give the American people, every American, a fair shot," said Richardson.

"To get that done, you need real-life experience. All I'm saying is, a lot of these folks can make speeches about all these things. I've actually done it."

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070121/ts_afp/usvote2008democrats [link]