Clinton hears 'eagerness' for talk of female presidency

Hillary Clinton did not win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but her campaign succeeded in addressing concerns about whether a woman could be commander in chief, she told The Des Moines Register on Sunday.

"Part of what I tried to do in that campaign was to begin to answer that question," she said. "Now I feel like the question's been answered."

Clinton's campaign in 2008 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 on Sunday, one of two sit-down news interviews that were the first for this presidential bid.

MORE:

• Hillary Clinton in Iowa: Make lemonade on trade deal
• Obradovich: Clinton meets bar of 'darn good event'
• Clinton: Americans have 'amnesia' about GOP failings
• Download Iowa Caucuses app
• Candidate tracker
• Full Iowa Caucus coverage

Clinton flew straight to Iowa on Saturday after her 2016 campaign's official kickoff rally before an audience of 5,000 in New York. On Sunday, she held her first public rally in Iowa, drawing more than 700.

In the 15-minute 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. She landed on the side of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over Obama in wanting to ensure stronger protections for American workers.

Clinton, the prohibitive front-runner for the Democratic nomination in Iowa and national polling, told the Register she talked in 2008 about her potential to make history "more than perhaps it was noticed."

"I said in many, many speeches that my mother was born before women could vote, and I hoped that every mother and father can say to their sons and daughters, 'You can be anything you want to be, including president.' So, I talked about it," she said.

She added: "I also carried the very big question which research and polling and just common sense said was out there: Could a woman be president and could a woman be commander in chief? And so I felt like I did have an extra burden."

Clinton noted that there have been a raft of TV programs that have featured women in power, such as "Veep," the HBO series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as vice president, then president, and "Madam Secretary," the CBS show in which Téa Leoni stars as U.S. secretary of state.

Other shows, such as "Gilmore Girls," which ran from 2000 to 2007, featured characters who repeatedly voiced the wish that Clinton would become president.

"A lot of different cultural references, which I find both fascinating and kind of reinforcing, because it does take a leap of faith of imagination for people to envision a woman in the Oval Office, and oftentimes culture, entertainment is ahead of the political system in lots of ways," she said.

Asked what message it would send to young Iowa girls if she becomes the Democratic Party's nominee, and if she's elected president, Clinton answered: "I think it would say that this big barrier that has separated men from women with respect to the highest office in our land has the potential for being broken."

But it's much broader than the presidency, she said.

"It's probably more importantly a message about aspiration and ambition and perseverance and acceptance that women and men have what it takes to pursue their own path in life and should be supported in doing so."

Clinton said just the fact that she's running "is also very historic."

"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 defends records of husband, Obama

In by far her most fiery answer during the Register interview, Clinton said she thinks Americans have "collective amnesia" about all the problems GOP presidents dumped on Bill Clinton and Obama.

She rejected the 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.

But it would be a mistake to not look at what worked during the four terms Bill Clinton and Obama have served, she said. Both inherited problems of GOP predecessors, she said.

"We're not supposed to remember that the 12 years preceding Bill Clinton quadrupled the debt of our country?" she asked. "We're not supposed to remember that when he left office, we had a balanced budget with a surplus? And if it had been continued would've paid off the national debt? We're not supposed to remember that Barack Obama inherited the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and had to pull us out of the ditch? And did a better job than he gets credit for? And we're not supposed to remember that finally after five presidents trying all the way back to Truman, we got an Affordable Care Act?"

Even as she defended the two prior Democratic presidents, Clinton said she'll have her own ideas for how to make college more affordable, how to make child care and preschool available for every child, how the country can become a clean energy superpower, how to fund infrastructure and "so much more."

She'll propose ideas for Obamacare fixes

Asked about the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, Clinton said that no matter which way the U.S. Supreme Court rules on federal subsidies, "I will be prepared to set forth what I would do."

Clinton said that if the court does what she thinks it should do based on the law and the facts, "that would mean it would not rule in favor of the very contorted argument that is being made by the opponents to blow up the Affordable Care Act's guarantee of coverage."

Clinton said she will strongly defend the law. But over the course of her campaign, she'll propose some fixes.

"About how to fix the family glitch, for example," she said, which has excluded a number of low-income people with families from getting subsidies. "About how to deal with the high cost of deductibles that put such a burden on so many working families, and how to deal with the exploding cost of drugs, particularly the so-called specialty drugs."