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Clinton characterizes herself as deft uniter

December 31, 2007

Democrat Hillary Clinton on Sunday portrayed herself as a caring peacemaker who teamed with Republicans to care for soldiers, who persuaded Catholic and Protestant women to sit at a table together in Northern Ireland, who got the drug companies to test medicine for children.

"So why do I tell you all this?" she asked an audience of about 400 in Vinton using a hushed, concerned storyteller's voice that seemed a little exaggerated at times. "Because if you want to know what kind of changes I will make as president, look at the changes I have made for 35 years, long before I was ever in public office, long before all these cameras showed up or before anybody really cared what I was doing.
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"I believed it was my obligation as a person of faith who had been given so many blessings."

Unlike a fairly quiet crowd in Maquoketa on Saturday, the audience in Vinton on Sunday gave Clinton multiple standing ovations with wild applause. A man yelled: "Iowa loves Hillary!"

Clinton seemed to want to convey graciousness - she apologized for the "blizzard" of TV commercials and thanked Iowans for their patience. She complimented the Vinton-Shellsburg High School for being 50 percent heated by geothermal energy.

She recited the "stack of problems" she believes the next president will face - end the war in Iraq, resolve the war in Afghanistan, bring the troops home quickly and responsibly, secure health insurance for 47 million uninsured and fix the economy.

"It's not only these big issues that I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about the issues in the daily lives of families," she said.

On a day her campaign designated "for honoring families," she described how she would work for health care and mental health care for everyone, better care for returning soldiers, ensuring paid family leave by 2016 and access to sick days for everyone.

"You know, in small ways helping a family, maybe it's just a listening ear, maybe it's just a word of encouragement, maybe it's untangling red tape and bureaucracy so that somebody can get taken care of. Or maybe it's working on a bigger scale to change systems and institutions," she said.

Her message hit home for Robyn Rieckhoff, a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom who lives in Cedar Rapids. This was her seventh campaign rally - she had already seen Republicans Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, and Democrats John Edwards and Barack Obama, as well as Bill Clinton stumping for his wife.

"I came in very open," Rieckhoff said. "But I'm decided. I'm going with Hillary. I like her family values. I feel like she's going to get the job done. Some of the others just felt like they were talking."

Her 9-year-old daughter, Sydney Rieckhoff, a kid reporter for Scholastic News, tried to ask Chelsea Clinton, 27, how her dad would do as "first man" but ended up with only a photo.

"I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press and that applies to even you, unfortunately," Chelsea Clinton told the girl, who held a notebook and pen. "Even though you're cute."

Source:  Des Moines Register

Posted by Hillary · Filed Under Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Make Overs, News 

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