Hillary Clinton: “It is your time”

Trying to shed an image of elitism, Hillary Clinton will deliver a concise message for the masses during her first big campaign rally Saturday: “It is your time.”

The 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner is scheduled to speak at Four Freedoms Park on New York’s Roosevelt Island, a site that offers the symbolism of linking herself to Franklin Roosevelt, the well-to-do president whose New Deal social programs provided work and financial security for Americans during and after the Great Depression.

The Clinton campaign on Thursday released a basic sketch of the themes of her speech, which is being billed as the formal announcement of a campaign that began two months ago. Since then, she has focused on raising money and meeting with voters in small groups in early primary states.

Now Clinton is ready to articulate her motivation for seeking the presidency, her vision for the country, and the contrast she will draw with her Republican rivals for the job, according to her campaign. The last point, which will be driven by a populist argument that Republican policies benefit those in the top economic strata, connects to Clinton’s main theme: She wants to be the champion for what she calls “everyday Americans.”

She will also lean heavily on the story of her late mother to explain her rationale for public service and seeking the presidency, a choice that appears to reflect her desire to talk more about her personal life — and about her gender — in this campaign than she did in her failed 2008 bid.

“She is a well-known figure, but when you’re asking the American people to support you as president, even if it is for the second time, there is no skipping of steps. If you want to understand Hillary Clinton, and what has motivated her career of fighting for kids and families, her mother is a big part of the story,” Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri said in a statement. “The example she learned from her mother’s story is critical to knowing what motivated Hillary Clinton to first get involved in public service, and why people can count on her to fight for them and their families now.”
Her campaign also revealed that she will use a video to show biographical highlights of her career.

Clinton advisers have said the speech will provide the basic architecture for specific policies she intends to detail over the course of the summer, but her campaign did not offer any insight into what exactly she will say about her platform on Saturday.