Hillary Clinton Calm and Confident In Closing Days of Iowa and PICC

[riversedge]

Hillary Clinton Calm and Confident In Closing Days of Iowa

http://time.com/4201183/hillary-clinton-calm-and-confident-in-closing-days-of-iowa/

Jay Newton-Small / Davenport, Iowa @JNSmall

Jan. 30, 2016
A sharp contrast to the chaos of her final push in 2008.

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Mary Jo Peterson isn’t worried. “I think Hillary is going to be the best president we’ve ever had,” she says, calmly surveilling a crowd of about 1,500 in Davenport for Bill and Hillary Clinton Friday night.
.....................

In recent weeks, Clinton has battled a flurry of headlines declaring her “panicked” at rival Bernie Sander’s surge in polls and fundraising. Clinton is “racing to close the enthusiasm gap,” while her polls numbers are in “an absolute free fall,” and “Sanders’ surge threatens a replay of 2008 for Clinton.” But the reality on the ground doesn’t bear this out.



The Davenport rally, essentially Clinton’s closing argument to Iowa’s eastern Quad Cities, was one of the largest crowds Clinton has addressed by design. As Clinton makes her way across the Hawkeye State ahead of Monday’s caucuses, her events—as well as her husband’s—are by design smaller and more intimate. There are no desperate recriminations, just a calm outline of the differences between Clinton and her rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. She is so on message that her events hardly vary in structure and tone. Her husband’s events are so quiet—a retelling of how he met his wife and how she has over the years been a force of good in his life and, he argues, the world—that the New York Times declared “the magic seems to be missing” and quoted political observers worried about his health.

What’s missing, actually, is the panic. .......................

.....................This time around, Clinton has done the opposite.And her crowds went from massive to relatively tiny—maybe 150-200 people in most places. She wanted to give Iowans an intimate feeling, says one campaign staffer. She wanted them to see that she’s listening to them, and not vice versa, a fact that is clearly reflected in her final Iowa campaign ad, which offers an emotional thank you to the people of Iowa.

Obama basically caught Clinton by surprise in 2008, but this year Clinton has been aware of Sanders’ threat for months. He was gaining on her in the spring before her Benghazi hearing and debate performances helped her keep the lead. That has allowed the campaign to deploy a far more measured response. In responding to Sanders, Clinton has tried to delineate differences without becoming too negative or personal.

But perhaps the biggest difference is her message. ..................................This time, the campaign is highlighting the historic nature of her candidacy and nakedly appealing to women. But even beyond that, Clinton’s own wonky dissections of Sanders’ policies are purely hers. She’s not trying on any outfits—military Hillary, mommy Hillary—she’s just Hillary.




Abby D. Phillip ?@abbydphillip 17h17 hours ago

Pretty fired up crowd tonight in Cedar Rapids. Chanting "Who are you with? I'm with her!"


:large





Hillary for Iowa Retweeted
Diana Bonete ?@DianaBonete 22h22 hours ago

Iowa, It all starts here. Three generations ready to #GOTC and win the #iacaucus for @HillaryClinton 🇺🇸 #ImWithHer



Jan Schakowsky ?@RepSchakowsky 23h23 hours ago

Whoever said Millennials aren't excited about Hillary hasn't seen this awesome crew of young people canvassing in IA

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. Hillary is cool, calm, and collected...

It's a shame us guys have a monopoly on all the cool but politically incorrect terms to describe those attributes.

[Lucinda]

2. I watched one of her town halls a few days ago.

It was a late event - after 10. She was wonderful. Concise about her plans, covered a lot of ground. Lots of people stayed to meet her afterwards. They have had a really smart plan on the ground in Iowa. I think she will do really well.

And there wasn't a single negative word said about Bernie or MOM.

[riversedge]

3. I have listened when I can also. She has gone after Republicans or

the dangers of having a Republican in office. She stopped her more harder criticisms of sanders about a week ago. She was not comfortable doing that. She is much better--answering questions and talking of her proposals.

[Lucinda]

4. I am glad she is sticking to her plans. They should just both

present their case and let the people choose. All the rancor just poisons the process. I hope some day soon that happens here too. I cringe thinking about what a new voter might think after finding DU.