OVER N.H. (Jan. 7) — With only hours until voting starts, New York Democrat Hillary Clinton intensified her self-portrait on Monday as the change agent who also has experience.
“I have what I believe to be the advantage of years of experience making positive change,” Clinton told a cheering crowd at the McConnell Center in Dover, N.H.
Clinton has tried to distinguish herself in the campaign by combining her political experience with what has been a winning theme of “change” for Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Her other chief rival, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, has also joined the chorus calling for change.
In Dover on Monday, Clinton criticized her opponents with oblique references to their comparative lack of political experience. “There’s a big difference between talk and action,” Clinton told the crowd. “There’s a big difference between rhetoric and reality.”
She cited a list of what she portrayed as her rivals’ failures. Edwards, for example, did not succeed in getting a “Patients Bill of Rights” passed, she said. “That is not change,” she said. And restrictions on lobbyists, touted by Obama, did not stop much of the socializing between elected officials and lobbyists, she said.
“This is not change,” Clinton repeatedly said to the cheering audience.
Clinton’s efforts are yet to be rewarded, according public opinion polls. The latest CNN/WMUR poll, released on Sunday, placed Clinton ten points behind Obama. In that survey, 61 percent said they were most concerned about a candidates’ ability to bring about change.
Judy Santin falls in that 61 percent. She is concerned about Clinton’s ability to bring about change, she said. “She says she represents change and I have a hard time believing it. She has 35 years of experience. How is that change?” said Santin, who described herself as an undecided independent voter.
Others at the rally on Monday said that Clinton’s long career as a politician attracted them to her.
“It’s her experience,” said Wendy Beagen, a Clinton supporter. “It’s the thing that draws me to her because she’s already been in the White House. She knows how the whole thing works.”
(Bryan Young is a sophomore magazine major)
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