University of Massachusetts students are getting geared up for Super Tuesday by talking politics – and many see Sen. Hillary Clinton as a contender.

With primary election wins in Florida and New Hampshire against contender, Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton is a force to be reckoned with.

“This race is extremely exciting,” said UMass freshman Melissa Black, a registered Democrat. “Either way, it’s going to get better.”

Clinton lays claim to two traits during speeches: experience and strength.

“Hearing her talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America’s big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience,” said the New York Times editorial board in an article that announced their endorsement of Clinton for the presidency.

Yet, Francesca Caruso, a sophomore, questioned at least one of those claims.

“I don’t believe in supporting Hillary just because she’s a woman, and I think she lacks experience, because being first lady is not an elected position,” Caruso said.

Others, like senior Loren Halman and Alana Goodman, sophomore Republican Club member, believe her strengths lie somewhere else.

“She definitely knows how to fight dirty,” Goodman said.

“Her promotion team seems to be into abusing other candidates, backbiting Obama, and he doesn’t seem to do that,” said Halman.

Despite Clinton’s campaign tactics, others look to her policies to decide.

“The war is the issue that matters most to me,” said junior and Republican Club member, Becky Martin.

The Iraq war has been a major point of criticism for Clinton.

In 2002, she voted in favor of deploying troops to Iraq, a decision she does not regret.

“I take responsibility for my vote,” said Clinton during the 2007 South Carolina primary debate on MSNBC. “Obviously, I did as good a job I could at the time. It was a sincere vote based on the information available to me.”

If elected president, Clinton said she would start a phased withdrawal within 60 days of taking office, with the goal to have troops out by the end of 2013, according to her Web site.

Black considers the war and the economy to be the two biggest issues.

Clinton has proposed a $70 billion plan to “jump start” the economy. This includes stopping Bush’s tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000, strengthening unions and ensuring trade laws work for all Americans. She also plans on lowering taxes for middle class families.

“Since I’m just finishing school, the issue I’m most concerned about is higher education,” said UMass senior Sophia Bruneau.

As president, Clinton claims she will lower the cost of college through a $3,500 tuition tax credit, which is enough to cover more than 50 percent of the cost of tuition at the average public institution for many families. Clinton also wants to rid of the red tape in obtaining financial aid, according to her Web site.

Bruneau believes Clinton’s policy on higher education gives her a “strong edge.”

“Global environment reform is huge for me,” Caruso said.

According to her campaign Web site, Clinton said she would establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

She would also establish a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. She also said she will begin an aggressive action to transition the economy toward renewable energy sources, with renewable sources generating 25 percent of electricity by 2025 and 60 billion gallons of home-grown biofuels available for cars and trucks by 2030.

When it comes to gay rights, Clinton believes states should maintain their jurisdiction over decisions concerning same-sex unions, she said in a Democratic primary debate sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign on gay issues in August of 2007.

“I am absolutely in favor of civil unions with full equality of benefits, rights and privileges,” Clinton said.

Born in 1947, to a staunch Republican father and a homemaker mother, Clinton grew up in Park Ridge, Ill.

“My father was an old-fashioned conservative,” Clinton said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “He believed in hard work and that everyone had to do their part and be willing to take responsibility.”

Clinton was a self-declared tomboy and never received an allowance as a child. She grew up with the same conservative beliefs as her father, until challenged by a local youth minister who took Clinton to see Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.’s address, “Sleeping through History.”

In 1965, Clinton attended Wellesley College, where she majored in political science and during her freshman year, was the president of the Young Republican Club.

Clinton slowly edged towards the left during her college years, and in 1968 attended both political conventions. A pivotal moment in Clinton’s clarity on the subject of political allegiance may be seen in her 1969 commencement speech, which openly challenged Republican Sen. Edward Brooks.

Her speech was so warmly received it was featured in Life magazine. After Wellesley, Clinton attended Yale Law School where she met her future husband, Bill Clinton.

When Mr. Clinton became president in 1992, Hillary got what she calls “eight years with a front-row seat on history,” she told The New York Times.

Clinton made 79 trips to foreign countries, where she wielded “soft power,” turned cold war enemies into friends, supported human rights, and encouraged non-profit and goodwill endeavors.

Her greatest achievement may have been her speech in 1995 to the United Nations concerning women in Beijing where she said “humans’ rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are humans’ rights.”

However, her largest assignment as first lady, a health care initiative, was a well-documented failure and during President Clinton’s most trying times, when trying to decide whether to bomb Afghanistan, she wasn’t even speaking to her husband, let alone advising.

In Clinton’s autobiography, “Living History,” she claims the two toughest decisions of her life were whether to stay with her husband and if she should run for U.S. Senate.

Clinton decided to run New York senator for the term starting Jan. 3, 2001. She won.

Yet some UMass students, like junior and native New Yorker, Jake Pearlstein, question Clinton’s motivation for running.

“She showed up in New York because that was the easiest state for her to get elected,” said Pearlstein. “I can’t trust anyone so political. Anyone who says ‘ya’ll’ is not a New Yorker.”

Despite any criticism, Clinton was re-elected in 2006.

The Massachusetts primary is on Feb. 5.

Kristen Forrelli can be reached at [email protected].