Clinton canvasses Iowa — without breaking a sweat

LAT: Clinton canvasses Iowa — without breaking a sweat
She runs a textbook front-runner's presidential campaign: methodical and focused.
By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 14, 2007

....Clinton campaigning is a study in focus and Swiss-watch precision. Her 30 years on the trail is evident as she polishes off the $2.59 diner special without a drip on her gold pantsuit, then weaves the lunch encounter into the larger narrative of her candidacy.

During a sweep last week across Iowa -- 10 stops in 3 1/2 days -- campaign events started and ended close to schedule. The backdrops -- rolling fields, a city square and banners that read "Rebuilding the road to the middle class" -- were picture-perfect. She touched on her major points like a runner rounding the bases: Bush is bad. Vice President Dick Cheney is worse. Hard-working Americans deserve a secure retirement and reliable, affordable healthcare. The "era of cowboy diplomacy" must end. So too must the war in Iraq....

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At this stage of the 2008 primary race, with the first voting still more than two months away, Clinton is running a textbook front-runner's campaign. During her Iowa swing, her media entourage -- including reporters from as far away as Germany and Japan -- had no opportunity to ask serious questions. She directed all her salvos at Bush, speaking kindly of her Democratic rivals the one time she mentioned them. "We have such great candidates running," Clinton told a crowd at the Gigglin' Goat restaurant in Boone. "This is the kind of election you don't have to be against anybody."...

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The crowds she drew during her Iowa visit typically numbered in the hundreds and were older and less demonstrative than those that turn out for her chief rival, the more dynamic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Clinton arrived and departed to standing ovations, but people rarely rose from their seats as she spoke. Her words seldom took flight....The electricity came after Clinton had finished speaking, when crowds packed against the metal barricades and velvet rope lines set up for security. She often spent as much time, or more, shaking hands, posing for pictures and signing autographs as she did delivering her remarks.

Clinton is the first woman to make a strong run for president, a fact that is somewhat lost in all the recent talk of her supposed inevitability. But audiences were reminded of the historic nature of her campaign each time she was introduced....In a stock phrase, Clinton said she was "not running because I'm a woman. I'm running because I think I'm the best-qualified and -experienced person to hit the ground running in January 2009." Still, she ended her remarks by saying how thrilling it was to meet elderly women who never thought they would live to see a female president, and little girls who take for granted that they will....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hillary14oct14,0,3071311.story?coll=la-home-nation

keep them doggies rollin' raw hide!

:)

:evilgrin:
rocknation