Sky News, United Kingdom
10-18-07
The Lady Is Learning
The queues started forming two hours before Hillary Clinton was due to arrive at
East High School in Des Moines, writes Sky Correspondent Ian Woods.
If the local opinion polls are accurate, Iowans haven't yet taken Hillary to their
hearts, but they know a star turn when they see one.
The Senator's entry into the race has accelerated interest in Presidential politics,
which is just as well, because she has a lot of ground to make up in the state
which is the first to cast its nomination votes.
Nationally, Hillary has a big lead over her rivals; but in Iowa she is in fourth place.
John Edwards, the former Vice Presidential candidate has practically moved
here, and his call for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq has won support from
anti-war Democrats.
Senator Barack Obama, who drew huge excited crowds at an event last year, is
second.
And the former governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack, who is virtually unknown outside
the state, has a loyal local following and is in third.
But there is almost a full year to go. Anything can happen in the next 12 months.
What the Clinton campaign needs to do is to engage in the sort of avuncular, upclose and personal canvassing which Iowans love.
That means small intimate meetings rather than big rallies. In her first visit to
Iowa she did both.
A big event was necessary to give the insatiable media something to film; but just
as important will be the house meetings which will allow impressed voters to
spread the word that Hillary is not really as cold as the Iowa winter.
After speaking to some of the electorate, it seems Clinton's initial support of the
war in Iraq has left a lasting impression that she is trying to be hawkish, in
answer to those who worry about a woman being Commander in Chief.
Others thought that she was too far removed from ordinary voters after so long in
the White House as First Lady, followed by six years in the Senate.
But Professor Steffen Schmidt, a politics expert at Iowa State University
says she has the obvious advantage of name recognition, and has carved out a
good position.
"She has the chameleon quality. She's able to transform herself; she isn't stuck in
an ideological spot and has transformed herself into a middle of the road,
conservative Democrat, and yet has tried not to lose too many of the Democratic
left."
But it's the activists who dominate caucus meetings who are less enamoured of
her.
And Iowans have been reluctant to elect woman politicians - they've never had a
woman Governor, or female member of Congress.
It's a tough place for Mrs Clinton to start her campaign. Failure to win would not
be a disaster, but if she didn't put up a strong performance in January 2008, it
would crystallise the doubts about her appeal among the country as a whole.
Even so, her advisers will be delighted at the way she handled her first
appearance of a long campaign. She was entertaining, and dealt with the
questions from the audience well, though she'll probably be relieved she didn't
get cross-examined over her initial vote in favour of invading Iraq.
And for someone who's criticised for being aloof, she had the good sense to stay
well after the event was due to finish, signing autographs and chatting to people
on a one-to-one basis.
The lady is learning, and the people I spoke to afterwards were impressed. Two
of them were convinced she was going to be the next president.