2016 U.S. presidential race likely to be showdown between two families
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Xinhua) — As many in and outside the U.S. have anticipated, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finally said “Yes, I am running for president” on Sunday.
With rich experience on the political stage that could attest to her leadership skills and unrivaled popularity among all possible Democratic candidates, Clinton is most likely to win the party’s nomination and head for a showdown with Jeb Bush, who is also widely expected to win the Republican nomination.
The scenario of Clinton vs. Bush competition will again draw intensive attention to political families that produce more than one president for the country.
For the Clinton family, Hillary Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton won the competition for the U.S. top job in 1992. He was one of the youngest U.S. presidents and also the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win two full terms.
By comparison, the Bush family has a much longer history for being the U.S. First Family.
The first president from the family is George H. W. Bush. He ran a successful campaign to succeed Ronald Reagan in 1988, after serving as the country’s vice president for eight years under Reagan.
In the wake of a weak recovery from an economic recession, along with continuing budget deficits, he lost the 1992 presidential election to Bill Clinton.
Eight years later, his eldest son Gorge W. Bush emerged victorious in a closely-contested presidential race with Al Gore and secured a second term in 2004.
Jeb Bush, the second son of George Bush Sr., served as the governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.
Throughout 2009 and 2010, he was rumored to attempt to win the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election and he denied to have such intention from the very beginning.
He has been considered a potential candidate in the 2016 presidential election since the end of the 2012 election, but he only said in late 2014 that he would be “actively exploring” a 2016 run and so far he has not yet made an official announcement to enter the race.
However, family’s history with the White House could either be a bless or a curse for the upcoming contender: A poll conducted jointly by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the Washington Post in January this year found that 34 percent of registered voters do not want to choose Jeb Bush “because both his father and brother served as the U.S. president,” as opposed to only 9 percent who say they would like to support him.
The same poll also found that Hillary Clinton may garner higher support in the race thanks to her husband: Some 24 percent voters, as against 16 percent, say the performance of her husband in the White House makes them more likely to choose the former first lady to lead the country.