Hillary Hits the Trail: 'Americans Need a Champion'

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton has made it official: she's making a second bid for the White House.

Unlike the big crowd-pleasing presidential campaign announcement of Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Clinton's official announcement came with little fanfare.

There was no major rally, no balloons, no bands -- just a simple tweet and a video placed on social media.

"Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion," Clinton says in the video.

What is Clinton hoping to accomplish with her upcoming trip to Iowa? CBN Chief Political Correspondent David Brody answered this question and more, click below to watch.

One day after her low-key announcement, she's already on the campaign trail, setting off to Iowa in a van Monday morning.

One of her campaign strategies is to dispel the impression that she is a wealthy, Washington insider by connecting with minorities and middle income Americans.

"It splices together the aspirations, the hopes, the stories of Latino voters, black voters, young voters, women. You really get the sense that Hillary is trying to resurrect that coalition," Associated Press Political Reporter Ken Thomas said.

The New York Post responded over the weekend with a cover entitled, "Hill No!" and posters with Clinton's picture saying, "Not Entitled" appeared in Brooklyn.

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" lampooned Clinton just hours before her announcement.

Scowling into a cell phone, actress Kate McKinnon, impersonating Clinton, insisted, "Citizens, you will elect me. I will be your leader!"

Despite the humor, Republicans are quick to make real, substantive crticisms of Clinton's record as secretary of state -- mostly her use of a private email server to keep her text messages secret, and the deletion of most, if not all of 30,000 messages.

And of course, they pounced on her alleged cover-up of the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was the first to jab Clinton shortly after her announcement.

In a video campaign ad he said, "We must do better than the Obama-Clinton foreign policy that has damaged relationships with our allies and emboldened our enemies."

Bush has yet to announce his 2016 presidential bid, but Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who calls Jeb Bush his mentor, was set to announce his presidential campaign Monday in Miami.

With one Democrat in the field, and now officially three Republicans, and with more to come, the U.S. presidential campaign season has begun. It'll be a long 500-plus days until the next presidential election.