Hillary Clinton begins second 'rendezvous with destiny'

Hillary Clinton began her second "rendezvous with destiny" with a promise to make new policies designed to benefit the middle class if she is elected America's first woman president.

Addressing the first major rally of her 2016 presidential run from New York City's Roosevelt Island in a state that she represented as senator for eight years after as many years as First Lady, she said "America can't succeed unless you succeed".

Wearing a blue pant suit, with husband Bill Clinton in a red T-shirt and daughter Chelsea standing among a cheering crowd by the side of an H-shaped blue stage with a red arrow like her campaign logo, she declared "Democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations".

"Prosperity can't be just for CEOs and hedge fund managers," she told the crowd of supporters waving paper US flags and chanting "Hillary, Hillary".

"Prosperity and democracy are part of your basic bargain, too," said the Democratic frontrunner invoking both her husband Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama, whom she served as Secretary of State for four years after a hard fought battle with her 2008 rival.

"You brought our country back. Now it's time, your time, to secure the gains and move ahead. And you know what? America can't succeed unless you succeed."

Invoking President Franklin Roosevelt's famous remark "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny", Clinton noted America's longest serving president had "called on every American to do his or her part and they answered".

"It's America's basic bargain -- if you do your part, you ought to be able to get ahead," she said. "When everybody does their part, America ought to be able to get ahead too."

Clinton slammed Republican opponents with an extended riff on the Beatles song "Yesterday".

"There may be some new voices in the Republican choir," she said of the party's 2016 field. "But they're all singing the same old song. It's a song called 'Yesterday'. They believe in yesterday."

"These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes and less regulations for wealthy corporations without any regard for what that will do to income inequality," she said.

Since announcing her candidacy in April, Clinton had so far addressed only low-key and small roundtable events in the first states to vote in the presidential primaries -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

Supporters began lining up at 6.30 a.m. for a rally that wouldn't begin until five hours later, according to CNN.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)