She's had to retool her rather detached autopilot approach to campaigning to a more personal style of management after being
challenged for frontrunner status in Iowa by Barack Obama's strong and unexpected ascendance.
Nowhere are her problems more on display than in this state, where success lies in building a person-to-person network of supporters.
And nowhere is the Clinton campaign — which to some Iowans had appeared ignorant of the political subtleties, if not arrogant
about them — working more urgently to recalibrate and head off defeat as the Jan. 3 caucus approaches... A poor showing in this
state on Jan. 3 could have ramifications in New Hampshire five days later, where polls suggest growing support for Mr. Obama,
particularly among independent voters, who can vote in either party’s primary... Her aides said she had largely cleared her schedule
this week to prepare for the Democratic debate on Thursday sponsored by The Des Moines Register, the final encounter here
among all the candidates, which they now view as one of their final opportunities to shift the momentum back to her favor.
Needing a strong performance to head off inroads made by Mr. Obama and tamp down questions about whether she is too calculating,
she is reviewing past Register debates and issues of particular importance in Iowa, and hoping to win The Register’s endorsement,
the aides said. (She went from East High School to downtown Des Moines for a private dinner Friday evening with David Yepsen, the
influential Des Moines Register columnist, who has repeatedly questioned whether Mrs. Clinton appreciated the nuances of the state.)
The Clinton campaign has doubled its weekly television advertising spending from $400,000 last week to $800,000 this week... At a
time of growing tension in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, her aides described former President Bill Clinton as increasingly frustrated... In a
sign of internal strains, some of Mrs. Clinton’s associates said they thought Mr. Clinton was struggling to make the adjustment from
principal candidate to supportive spouse. In one example of this, Mr. Clinton asserted in Iowa last month that he had been against
the war in Iraq “from the beginning,” a statement more absolute than his public statements at the time. His remark produced a round
of criticism that the Clintons too frequently parse their positions for political gain... reflected by the sometimes tin-ear quality of the
Clinton campaign here.
On her first trip here last January, one adviser said, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly expressed frustration, confiding to one associate that she
“had no feel for the place.” She responded with bewilderment when informed that she should not assume that she now had the support
of an Iowa Democratic leader even after spending 40 minutes over coffee with him... Most recently, Mrs. Clinton has struggled to find
the right tone to use in attacking Mr. Obama in a state where voters have been known to recoil at negative campaigning. Some of her
attacks on Mr. Obama, including one in which she questioned his character and another where her staff mocked him for writing a
kindergarten essay saying he wanted to be president, were described even by some of her supporters as clumsy.
Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said they would continue at least some form of attack on Mr. Obama, even at the risk of allowing Mr. Edwards
to gain ground by presenting himself as above the fray. Mrs. Clinton’s aides said they were far more worried about Mr. Obama
marching out of Iowa with a victory than they were about Mr. Edwards, who has far less money and lacks a strong base of support
in New Hampshire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/us/politics/12clinton.html?hpSo Obama is in for more attacks (no mention of the Rovian swift boating madrassa emails sent by enterprising Clinton county coordinators/
regional directors in the article, alas!) because Hillary thinks Edwards is not a threat to her beyond Iowa. :eyes:
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