The United States is unique among the nations of the world in that it hardly seems that they finish a national election then candidates are already lining up ready for the next one four years later. Since President Clinton left the White House in January of 2001, the widely accepted wisdom was that his wife Hillary Clinton would run in 2008. She needed a base from which to operate, and the US Senate seemed to offer the best high profile, so she elected to run in November of 2000 from the state of New York. Of course, Hillary is not from New York, so she had to quickly establish a residency there so she could qualify. Some asked why she did not elect to run as a senator from the state of Arkansas or her home state of Illinois? Cynics charged that it was because New York would be a better jumping off point for a presidential campaign. However, by all accounts, she has been a prominent senator who worked hard for her constituents in New York and when she ran for reelection in 2006, they voted her back to Washington. A short time later, she announced that she was running for President of the United States.
According the Ideal Leadership theory, there are four conditions that must be met in order for an individual to be given the opportunity to lead a given organization, in this case, the USA. Hillary Clinton does not have to worry about the condition of Period, because it would seem that gender is no longer a limiting factor. Polls have revealed that 90 percent of Americans would be willing to vote for a female president. The leadership condition of People is why elections are held. Time will tell if this is a problem for Mrs. Clinton or not.
It is the leadership conditions of Place and Position that represent a problem for not only her, but all the presidential aspirants from the Democratic Party. Americans have not elected a member of the House of Representatives or US Senate to the Presidency in almost half a century. When choosing presidents, Americans greatly prefer governors (e.g. Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Carter). Why? Because these individuals must LEAD. They are executives who must make executive decisions. Legislators can introduce proposals, and compromise and wheel and deal with other legislators to push proposals forward, but in the end, they have little actual authority.
On the Republican Party side, it is no surprise that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (who has been described by one White House correspondent as a "prototypical man-in-charge executive) leads the pack. Is America ready for a female president? YES. Is Hillary Clinton that person? The leadership conditions would call that into question.