Hillary Clinton will be ‘her own president,’ White House says

The White House said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton “will be her own president” if elected in November, not a clone of President Obama.

After listing nearly a dozen liberal agenda items from climate change to Obamacare where Mrs. Clinton’s views “overlap” with Mr. Obama, White House press secretary Josh Earnest noted that the media have highlighted some of her policies that “differ” from her old boss.

“That’s natural,” Mr. Earnest said. “She’s somebody with her own views, her own perspectives and there may be some places where there’s a different view. She’s going to be her own president, if in fact she’s elected.”

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin told the Republican National Convention Tuesday night, “Hillary Clinton is a third Obama term.”

Mr. Earnest said the president believes in the value of “fresh legs and a new perspective in the Oval Office after the last eight years.”

“The president’s interested in that fresh perspective and those fresh legs being a part of someone who’s committed to building on all the important progress that we’ve made over the last seven years,” he said.