Clinton reaches for voters who chose Obama in 2008

VINTON, Ia. — Hillary Clinton needs to woo people like Kathy Simpson if she's going to win the Iowa caucuses.

Simpson was one of tens of thousands of Iowa Democrats who checked out Clinton’s 2008 campaign and decided instead to support the successful insurgent candidacy of Barack Obama. Last week, the Waterloo voter traveled to a rally at Vinton’s roller-skating rink to give Clinton another chance.

Clinton is once again trying to fend off a surprisingly strong challenger. This time, it’s Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose populist anger over economic unfairness has made him a favorite of young liberals. On the trail, Clinton counters Sanders by stressing her wide-ranging experience, including her four-year service as President Obama’s secretary of state.

In Vinton, she recalled how she helped Obama make the difficult decision to send a team of Navy SEALs to nab terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout. It would be nice to think that a president’s advisers could offer a card with a few clear choices in such perilous situations, she said. “But none of them are ever the same. We spent hours wrestling with this. Was this good intelligence? If we thought it was good enough to act, how should we act?”

Obama’s top advisers were split about whether to approve the raid, she said, “but I thought it was a risky but necessary operation.”

After listening to Clinton speak for a half hour, Simpson, 56, signed a card pledging to caucus for her.

Simpson said Clinton is a stronger candidate than she was eight years ago. “I think she’s gained a lot of confidence in herself and in what she can do,” Simpson said. The foreign policy experience is a big plus, Simpson said. “I think she’s cut a clear path, and people will listen to her.”

A recent Iowa Poll found that Clinton and Sanders were splitting the support of Democrats who backed Obama in 2008. Of those who supported Obama then and intend to caucus Feb. 1, 41 percent supported Sanders and 39 percent supported Clinton, the poll found. The same poll showed Clinton's once-commanding lead among likely Democratic caucus participants had almost evaporated. She was at 42 percent to Sanders' 40 percent.

In a backstage interview after the roller-rink speech, Clinton expressed optimism that she would win over Iowa Democrats who backed Obama in 2008.

“There has been a great outpouring of support from some of the people who were leaders for President Obama,” she said. “My experience has been that they’re supporting me because they know I will do a good job, and they know that I will work to build on the progress he’s made.”

ENDORSEMENT: Hillary Clinton has needed knowledge, experience

Clinton hugs tight to Obama's legacy

At event after event, Clinton draws Democratic activists’ cheers for variations on this declaration about the 2008 recession the president inherited: “I don’t think President Obama gets the credit he deserves for digging us out of the ditch we were in!”

In the interview, Clinton showed how closely she’s tying her candidacy to Obama’s legacy.

“If you look at what the president’s accomplished, with the Affordable Care Act, with Dodd-Frank (financial-sector regulations aimed at preventing another crisis like in 2008), with saving the auto industry, with the nuclear arms agreement with Iran and so much more, people know that we have to be on a continuing journey here in our country," she said.

She promised "to keep making progress, never to give up, keep at these difficult problems, to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s been my political and personal and public role for my entire adult life.”

Clinton said her campaign started seriously organizing in Iowa earlier this cycle than it did eight years ago. “We had a much better idea of what to do and how to do it,” she said. “And in part we had some really good help from people who had done it successfully before, which made a big difference.”

Her staffers and volunteers have toiled throughout Iowa since last summer. They’ve held house parties, knocked on doors and made phone calls. They’ve flooded Twitter with photos of cheerful people clad in "I'm With Her" garb, and hit the sidewalks no matter the weather.

At her events, her volunteers relentlessly urge voters to share contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers. Before Clinton comes out, young staff members take the microphone and encourage audience members to use their cellphones to text a campaign number so they can get updates later.

“They’ve worked so hard. They’ve met with so many people,” Clinton said. “They’ve done everything they know to do to create the connection that will motivate people to come to the caucus, and they deserve the credit.”

Clinton credited with 'excellent organization'

Like most other candidates, Clinton is ramping up her campaign in the final push toward next Monday’s finish line. She is bringing in a slew of famous surrogates, including movie stars, pop singers, senators and governors, who are touting her credentials to Iowans. Her most famous surrogate, of course, is her husband, former President Bill Clinton. He has enthusiastically pitched in to the Iowa campaign.

Even with the celebrities’ help, Clinton has not drawn as many giant crowds as Sanders has.

Pat Rynard, who writes about the caucus races for the Iowa Starting Line website, said it’s hard to predict how many of the enthusiastic young people who pack Sanders’ events will actually caucus for him. But he said Clinton organizers should be concerned.

Clinton supporters often note that polls show her leading among Iowans who have caucused previously. But Rynard suspects it’s better to have an enthusiastic rookie supporter than a lukewarm experienced one. “Just because somebody came out for you in 2008 doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll come out in 2016 if they’re not feeling it,” he said.

Rynard was a field organizer for Clinton in 2008. He said if she pulls out a victory in Iowa next Monday, it will be because of her excellent organization. “It’s right up there with Obama’s” in 2008, he said.

He admires the way Clinton campaign leaders encourage young organizers by routinely giving them the honor of introducing the candidate at events. That’s good for morale, and it helps knit the field staff into the communities from which they’re fishing for supporters, he said.

Rynard said that on the stump, Clinton appears to be connecting better with Iowans than she did eight years ago. She seems more relaxed, he said, and she does a good job of listening to Iowans’ questions and then weaving their stories and concerns into her narrative.

Clinton also routinely wades into Iowa issues, mainly by criticizing Gov. Terry Branstad for his closure of two state mental hospitals, his veto of additional school money and his plan to privatize Medicaid. Many Democratic activists loathe the Republican governor, so her attacks on him play well to her crowds, Rynard said.

He joked that she’s running a better Democratic campaign for Iowa governor than Iowa Democrats have managed recently. But he added that she’s also signaling that she’s paying attention to Iowans and that she will help their candidates regain control of state government.

Experience shows when when taking questions

Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, agreed with Rynard that Clinton seems more confident on the stump than she did eight years ago. “She’s talking a bit more about her potential historic role as the first woman president,” Bystrom said. “I think she’s more comfortable in her own skin than she was in ’07-08.”

Clinton is particularly good at taking voters’ questions during campaign events, Bystrom said. “When you get to the Q&A, it’s more Hillary Clinton unscripted,” the professor said. “And then you see that she knows a lot, she’s very experienced and she has a lot of information. I’m not saying you have to agree with her. I’m saying she’s super smart.”

Voter Lizbeth Moshe, 61, of Delmar supported Clinton in 2008 and plans to do so again this year. She said Clinton has become a stronger candidate, especially when she opens herself to public questioning at campaign stops. That approach plays to Clinton’s strengths, including her recall of detail, Moshe said. “I don’t think she has to use sound bites. She’s so smart, she can answer questions off the top of her head.”

Most of the questions at Clinton events come from admirers, but some come from undecided or even critical voters. Moshe, who has volunteered to make phone calls for Clinton, recalled how a man at an event in the town of Clinton told the candidate that Obamacare has complicated his health care and made it more expensive. Instead of being defensive, Clinton defended Obamacare and explained how she would try to improve it, recalled Moshe, who is a retired librarian for an investment firm.

Mary Jackson-Everett also attended the Davenport rally. Jackson-Everett, 65, is a retired teacher who supported Obama after being blown away by his soaring speeches in 2008. She’s on board with Clinton this time. “She doesn’t speak as well as he does, but it’s not just about how well you speak. It’s about what you can get done,” she said at a Davenport rally last month.

Jackson-Everett especially likes the way Clinton stands up to criticism, mainly from men. She loved how the former secretary of state calmly withstood hour after hour of grilling last fall by Republican members of Congress trying to fan the flames of a purported scandal over the attacks on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Jackson-Everett, who has volunteered to be a precinct captain for Clinton, was seated on a riser next to where the candidate was about to appear. A young staff member came over to the riser to offer tips on how Jackson-Everett and other volunteers should behave. TV cameras would be catching them in the background as Clinton spoke, the young woman said, so they shouldn’t be looking down at their phones or acting bored. Clinton intended to thank them, and they should be sure to stand for the honor.

“We want you to be loud, energized, excited!” the staff member declared.

When the time came, Jackson-Everett and the other precinct captains stood, clapped and displayed their enthusiasm. The question now is whether they can fire up enough other people next Monday.

TRADEMARK JOKE:

Clinton often recounts how after Republican candidates questioned what she’d accomplished as secretary of state, she sent them all a copy of her memoir: “Hard Choices.”

“I figured there were so many of them, they could start a book club,” she joked to about 600 voters in Indianola Thursday. She said the book explains her work on a wide range of complicated tasks, such as negotiating with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood and pressing for an international agreement to combat global climate change.

“Do you know, I didn’t get a single thank you note,” she said, drawing laughter. “And based on what they continue to say on the campaign trail, it doesn’t seem like the Republican candidates learned very much.”

TOP ISSUES

Here are three of Hillary Clinton's top campaign pledges:

• Raise middle-class standard of living: Clinton is pushing for an increased minimum wage and incentives for employers to share profits with their workers. She also seeks expansion of family leave laws.
• Make the economy fairer to working people: Clinton stresses that the country should not return to “trickle-down” economics, in which tax cuts for the rich supposedly will expand the economy for everyone. That hasn’t worked in the past, and it won’t work now, she says.
• Improve education: Clinton stresses the need to help young children learn before they start school. She also backs measures to make college more affordable and to ease reliance on student loans.

COMPARE THE CANDIDATES: Review Hillary Clinton's stances on the issues

ABOUT HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 

Age: 68

Education: Bachelor’s degree, political science, Wellesley College, 1969. Law degree, Yale University, 1973.

Previous elected office: Clinton served as a U.S. senator from New York from 2001 to 2009.

Other career highlights:

• After law school, she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund.
• Worked as a private practice lawyer while her husband, Bill, was Arkansas governor.
• Was first lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
• Was secretary of state during President Barack Obama’s first term.