Years before the 2008 elections, you may have seen the candidacy of Hillary Clinton coming. For the past decade, the 60-year old former First Lady earned a reputation for ambition and doggedness, eventually serving in the male-dominated Senate for New York in 2000. Politically, she has had a progressive outlook, though her views expressed as she reaches the presidency have taken a sharp turn toward the center (or further, to her detractors). In 1996, she hosted the first ever iftar at the White House, a tradition that remains unbroken to this day. Long ago in 1998, she expressed support for a Palestinian state before it was politically acceptable. These days, she's known more for scrutinizing (and returning) Muslim donations to her campaign and other assorted insensitivities.

Related links:
Muslim Americans for Hillary Clinton 2008 (Facebook group)

SUPPORTS affordable health care for all Americans - "Under my plan, large companies will be required to help pay for their employees' health care. Those that do so can simply maintain their current policy that they choose. Those that don't will need to contribute towards the cost of covering their employees on a sliding scale based on their size and average wages... We won't require small businesses to cover employees. Instead we will provide tax credits to ensure that many of them do... The government will provide tax-credits to insure that every single American can afford health insurance."

OPPOSES the Iraq war, sudden withdrawal of troops - Voted "yes" to the invasion in 2002, but is now opposed. "If I had been President in October of 2002, I would have never asked for authority to divert our attention from Afghanistan to Iraq, and I certainly would never have started this war." "[T]rying to withdraw is not something you snap your fingers and tell people, do it tomorrow. It has to be done in a thoughtful, orderly, careful way that defends our troops on these routes they're going to have to take to get men and equipment out of Iraq."

SUPPORTS Israel and the West Bank Barrier - "We will stand with Israel, because Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones. [The barrier] is not against the Palestinian people. This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism."

SUPPORTS engagement with Iran - "I will do everything I can to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, including the use of diplomacy, the use of economic sanctions, opening up direct talks. We haven't even tried. That's what is so discouraging about this. We need a concerted, comprehensive strategy to deal with Iran. We haven't had it. We need it. And I will provide it."

SUPPORTS availability of legal abortion - "I believe we can all recognize that abortion in many ways represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women. Research shows that the primary reason that teenage girls abstain is because of their religious and moral values. We should embrace this - and support programs that reinforce the idea that abstinence at a young age is not just the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do. But we should also recognize what works and what doesn't work, and to be fair, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs. I don't think this debate should be about ideology, it should be about facts and evidence."

OPPOSES education vouchers - "I do not support vouchers. And the reason I don't is because I don't think we can afford to siphon dollars away from our underfunded public schools. First family that comes and says 'I want to send my daughter to St. Peter's Roman Catholic School' and you say 'Great, wonderful school, here's your voucher.' Next parent that comes and says, 'I want to send my child to the school of the Church of the White Supremacist...' The parent says, 'The way that I read Genesis, Cain was marked, therefore I believe in white supremacy. You gave it to a Catholic parent, you gave it to a Jewish parent, under the Constitution, you can't discriminate against me.' So what if the next parent comes and says, 'I want to send my child to the School of the Jihad'? I won't stand for it."