HILLARY CLINTON was on a campaign road trip deep into the U.S. heartland yesterday after launching her bid to become the first woman to win the White House with a pledge to champion “everyday Americans.”

    Long assumed to be the frontrunner for her Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for the 2016 race, Clinton’s formal entry unleashed her formidable fundraising machine and social media operation.

    Clinton, who lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, put an end to the pantomime surrounding the worst-kept secret in U.S. politics by posting an ad on her new Facebook page and website and sending links to her 3 million Twitter followers.

    “I’m running for president,” a beaming Clinton said in a slickly produced video that went viral. “Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion.”

    Her campaign said the 67-year-old former first lady, secretary of state and global charity director, will spend the next six to eight weeks building a grassroots organization and “engaging directly with voters.”

    Her first major rally and the speech that kicks off her campaign is not expected until May, but Clinton’s road trip — the van has reportedly been nicknamed “Scooby,” from the classic cartoon — will take her to meet small groups of voters in Iowa.

    In Iowa, the first state to vote in an election year, Clinton will talk “about how to make the economy work so everyday Americans and their families can actually get ahead and stay ahead.”

    Clinton’s campaign-in-waiting has quietly organized for months, bringing on key staffers and advisers, plotting outreach operations and strategizing.

    On Saturday, she earned praise from Obama, who said she would make “an excellent president.”

    But experts warn she will have to tread a fine line in how closely she aligns herself with the incumbent, whose approval ratings have lingered below 50 percent for two years.

    The one-time senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton leads opinion polls among Democrats, some 60 percent of whom say they would vote for her in the primaries, according to website RealClearPolitics.

    At this early stage in the campaign, Clinton also holds a clear lead over her potential Republican rivals. A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll showed Clinton ahead of potential GOP candidate Jeb Bush by a 54-to-40 percent margin in a potential match-up, with even bigger leads against Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Scott Walker, and Senator Marco Rubio, who plans to announce soon whether he will launch his own White House bid.

    (SD-Agencies)