When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced she was running for President, there was a legitimate cause for a gasp.

Some of our parents and grandparents might reflect back on any of the numerous Clinton scandals that Hillary was knee-deep in, along with her husband, golden boy, Bill: Filegate, Troopergate, Travelgate, Whitewater, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Vince Foster.

Secretary Clinton has baggage and has quickly added more in recent years.

By having the morality, judgment and aptitude of a not-so-typical politician, Clinton sent and received top-secret, classified and confidential information given to her by the federal government on a personal email server, which is illegal.

This was after she was briefed as the new incoming Secretary of State and signed a document stating she understood protocols for handling classified data. She knew the sensitivity and housed it on her insecure server anyway. She may claim she was too ignorant to understand its importance. Either way, it’s not really the foundation of someone qualified to be Secretary of State, let alone President of the United States, whose number-one responsibility is to keep America safe.

Yes, she may support gay marriage — unlike she did in 2012 — but, since this is the 21st century, so do the other liberal candidates leading in the polls.

To tack on to her accomplishments, Clinton verifiably accepted millions of dollars from foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia, Omen, Yemen and Morocco for The Clinton Foundation. These are countries known to oppress and abuse women, execute gays and/or provide financial resources to harbor terrorists.

Although she claims to be a woman for women, Clinton wants some women to shut up — at least the many women who attempted to come forward and report sexual harassment claims against her husband.

These situations cannot be ignored as representative of Clinton’s morals and character, or lack thereof.

As the champion of the middle class, Clinton claims she is able to relate to most Americans. I mean, don’t we all have private jets and get paid $225,000 for a 60-minute speaking engagement? Yeah, me too.

Being the Commander in Chief of the American people is quite a responsibility. The President of the United States is responsible for almost 319 million citizens. Why not put it all in the hands of a woman who caused the most disastrous period of foreign policy in three decades?

Because there are better options, that’s why — many of whom won’t essentially create a third term for President Barack Obama.

Secretary Clinton’s plan for the economy is dry and overused — raise taxes and pour revenue into the government. The last time the federal budget was balanced was in 2001. All of Hillary’s chosen policies are very similar to, if not exactly like, the ideas President Obama has enacted over the last eight years. Clinton is openly campaigning that she wants to continue more of Obama’s policies.

Year after year, President Obama continues to break records for the highest tax revenue collected from American citizens, yet he still operates with an annual deficit. Overall spending has never been cut — only the constant increase has been decreased in some areas.

I’m 17 years old and realize that this is dangerous and leaves unsustainable debt for future generations to handle.

I am most certainly looking forward to a female president some day, but it would be ridiculous to vote for someone solely based on gender. My loyalty relies on a person’s actions, ideals and integrity.

As said by Madeleine Albright, the first ever female Secretary of State, while speaking at a campaign stop, where she was encouraging voters to support Hillary “…there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” I apologize for the lack of support, Ms. Albright, but it seems silly of me to hang with the likes of a lying criminal simply because she is a woman.