At Kirsten Gillibran's exploratory committee facebook page, it looks like 9 out of 10 comments are

[Blue_true]

155. Every one of the great Presidents had a lot of bad policy.

For example, if Lincoln had put George Henry Thomas in as the leader of Union forces and gave him the room to lead those forces, hundreds of thousands of lives might have been saved by the civil war ending quicker. Thomas was by far the best Union command officer, if you take time to read all historical accounts of command officers in that war, but Thomas was a southerner. Lincoln made compromises for political reasons that led to bad outcomes. But even with all of that Lincoln is arguably our best President (maybe a nudge past Washington, a man who also made significant mistakes, if you read historical accounts and don't go on recreations of the quality of his leadership).

So, I am perfectly fine with the idea of Gillibrand as President, she would have a capacity to make both mistakes and great policy, just like the greats through the country's history.