Clinton Invites Voters to 'Inspect' Her

[December 17, 2007]  DUNLAP, Iowa (AP) -- Standing atop a stage in a livestock auction barn, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton likened the experience to her quest to woo undecided voters in the closing days before Iowa's pivotal caucuses.

"I've been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas, but I've never felt like I was the one that was being bid on," Clinton told a crowd in western Iowa. "I know you're going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy and to ask you to consider caucusing for me."

The former first lady made her comments during the launch of a five-day campaign blitz across Iowa less than three weeks before the state's Jan. 3 caucuses. Buoyed by the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper, Clinton said she "could not be more pumped up" and that her campaign had regained its momentum after several shaky weeks.

The endorsement in Sunday's Des Moines Register gave a huge lift to the Clinton team as it fights to stem the surging momentum of her lead rival, Barack Obama. Polls have shown a tight three-way contest between Clinton, Obama and John Edwards in Iowa with Obama leading slightly in some surveys. Meanwhile, Clinton's once formidable lead in other early state polls like New Hampshire and South Carolina has also appeared to vanish.

To push back, the New York senator and a team of surrogates and supporters were fanning out across the Iowa to host events in the state's 99 counties during the last full week before the campaigns pause to observe Christmas.

Clinton herself was hopping from stop to stop on a "Hilli-copter" to reach as many geographic regions of the ice-crusted state as possible.

Among supporters making an appearance was Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator and governor whose borders Iowa.

Kerrey, who ran briefly for the Democratic nomination in 1992 against Bill Clinton, said he was endorsing Hillary Clinton "enthusiastically and unequivocally.

"She inspires my confidence. The question is, does she inspire your confidence?" Kerrey asked.

Clinton also unveiled a retooled stump speech Sunday that stressed her record of working for change in public policy throughout her career as a lawyer and later as first lady and a senator.

With polls showing most Democratic voters eager for a new direction in Washington, Clinton, with her long record in public life, has been forced to battle the perception that Obama would be the more effective change agent.

"We are ready for a new beginning," she told an audience in Council Bluffs. "It all comes down to one question: who is ready and able to make the changes we need on Day One in the White House."

Without mentioning him by name, Clinton also sought to contrast her health care plan with Obama's. Her campaign has criticized the Illinois senator for offering a health coverage proposal that would not require everyone to carry health insurance; Obama has said coverage can't be mandated until health care costs are substantially reduced.

"Who would I leave out? Who would get to decide?" Clinton asked.

She also made a more explicit appeal to women voters, whom her campaign was counting on to come out in large numbers for Clinton.

"Countries that deny women their rights are often countries we have problems with, aren't they?" she said. "When I am president I will continue to make changes that are good and right for women and are also smart for national security."

[Associated Press; By BETH FOUHY]

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