Clinton's win not guaranteed despite global celebrity

"The GOP field does not have the stature of Mrs. Clinton. Many of them are not well-known and don't have her star power. But Republicans will be well-funded for the general election," West said.

Still, Clinton is not guaranteed to win so early in the game, and the race is far from a done deal.

Indeed, Republican strategist Ford O'Connell told Xinhua that it is favorability, rather than brand recognition, that is important here, as Clinton's favorability rate is falling in several key US states.

"You have to understand why she's announcing now instead of June or July, and the reason is her once insurmountable lead in several key battleground states is crumbling," O'Connell said, pointing to the states of Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Iowa, where she is trailing by at least one point in each state.

"Her biggest problem is that she has a trust deficit -- people are not seeing her as honest and trustworthy," he said.

Clinton has faced scrutiny in recent months after it was revealed that she solely used a private email account to conduct business during her four-year tenure as secretary of state, and kept a private server at her residence. That sparked a wave of controversy and myriad questions, such as whether she sent any classified information through the account.

According to a Bloomberg poll published Friday, 53 percent of Democrats and independents said they believed that Clinton "purposefully withheld or deleted some" of her emails.

"Her jumping in now as opposed to later should be seen as a sign of desperation and announcing out of weakness," O'Connell said. "She has to find a way to soften herself up."