Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., shakes hands at a campaign event in Dover, N.H. Monday, Jan. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
by John McCormick
Dover, N.H. – After misting up over a question about her campaign trail appearance, the tougher side of Sen. Hillary Clinton reemerged here this afternoon at a rally where she continued to stress her experience.
"I will be a much better president because I have had experience on both [ends] of Pennsylvania Avenue," she said.
Later, she raised the specter of a terrorist attack or other incident where experience will matter. "There will be things that none of us could predict," she said.
The New York Democrat suggested terrorists seek to take advantage of changing governments.
"They watch our elections as closely as we do, maybe more than some of our fellow citizens do," she said. "Let's not forget…you're hiring a president to be there when the chips are down and the problems are piling up…I hope I don't face any of those in my first 100 days, but if I do, I think I'll be ready."
Clinton also called out her leading rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, for his past support of giving driver's licenses to those who are not citizens.
"He's been on record quite some time favoring licenses for illegal immigrants," she said. "That's a big difference between us. I think that is a privilege and should be given to people who have legal status."
Clinton also mentioned another popular name in New Hampshire right now, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who she said she has traveled with and worked with on matters of global warming.
But it was the experience message that continued to be central to her responses to questions from voters.
"I'm not asking you to take a leap of faith on me," she said, later adding another reference to Obama: "Words, no matter how beautifully delivered, are gone."











Comments
"HILLARY SPEAKS"
The Republicans are a well regulated militia, and you can't trust them.
IF YOU VOTED REPUBLICAN AND YOU VOTED FOR GEORGE BUSH THEN HOW CAN YOU BE A REPUBLICAN EVER AGAIN?
The Abseentee Senator from Arizona, John McCain, FIRST THING OUT OF HIS MOUTH. THE CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ. NOTHING ABOUT THE DYING SOLDIERS BUT THE CONTRACTORS.
MITT ROMNEY BOEHNER BUST STAY ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. IF YOU SAY IMMIGRATION REFORM, YOU LOSE MEDIA COVERAGE.
HUCKLEBEE - STICKING TO THE EVANGELICAL WAYS OF DEPORTATION OF THY NEIGHBOR. THE EVANGELICAL WAYS OF THE KKK TO ISOLATE THEM MEXICANS, THOSE LESBIANS, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE GAYS.
FRED THOMPSON, WELL I CREATED HOMELAND SECURITY WITH THE CONSULTATION OF JOE LIEBERMAN BEFORE BILL CLINTON LOST THE ELECTION. WE KNEW, WE KNEW WHAT HE HAD TO DO.
WARN ALL JEWS IN THE TOWARS TO GET THE HELL OUT ON 9/11. HERE'S HOMELAND SECURITY FOR YOU. NOW MEET THE SECRETARY.
RUDY GUILIANI, FLIPPER FLOPPED CRIMINAL WHO WILL GET OUT OF THIS RACE, SO HE DOESN'T FIND HIMSELF ON THE HILL TESTIFYNG ABOUT WHAT HE KNEW ABOUT 9/11 AND WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY HE STOLE FROM THE HANDICAP AND THE RETARDED TO GET SOME NOOKIE OR THE COOKIE.
RON PAUL, WELL RON PAUL IS SAYING EVERYTHING THE ABOVE IS NOT ALLOWED TO SAY, AND THE BOEHNER JUST SAYS HE HAS BEEN IN OFFICE TOO LONG. HE WILL GO HOME TO BE WITH MAMA JUST LIKE DAVID VITTER DOES AFTER HE LEAVES YOUR LOCAL PARK.
SENATOR CLINTON NEEDS TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVE AND SHOOT STRAIGHT AMONST MEN.
Posted by: Roger Morris | January 7, 2008 3:51 PM
There's no crying in the White House!
Posted by: John | January 7, 2008 4:00 PM
...in a post 9/11 world; Hill is right. We cannot afford to rold the dice on fancy rhetoric. Go Hill! Keep workin hard; Obama Hussein Barrack or whatever his name is, will soon fade away as quickly as the media helped create him.
Hillary 08!
Posted by: michael | January 7, 2008 4:14 PM
...in a post 9/11 world; Hill is right. We cannot afford to role the dice on fancy rhetoric. Go Hill! Keep workin hard; Obama Hussein Barrack or whatever his name is, will soon fade away as quickly as the media helped create him.
Hillary 08!
Posted by: michael | January 7, 2008 4:15 PM
Clinton's "Republican" Tricks
When Senator Clinton suggests that in a terrorist attack other candidates won't know what to do and she will, she is using a textbook Republican strategy. She is using fear to try to force you to vote for her. Senator Barack Obama has plenty of experience and her argument falls apart because of that but she makes the argument anyway because she knows fear can get you to ignore the facts.
And immigration is yet another issue that Republicans love to exaggerate to trick you into voting for them. More and more, on foreign policy (Iraq and Iran) and on her use of fear in her campaign, Clinton is sounding like a Republican. I thought she was running as a Democrat.
Don't fall for Senator Clinton's tricks. Senator Barack Obama is the leader this country needs to heal our divisions and bring us together to deal with the challenges we face.
Posted by: Edward Lynch | January 7, 2008 4:32 PM
People are suckers for a demagogue, and they're proving it again in droves as they flock to Obama--the "nice" guy, the "charismatic orator". First of all, you can't effect change just by promising it a billion times. Change for change's sake is absurd. Secondly, I don't buy into this idea he's a great charismatic speaker. He stutters like he can't even put a sentence together. People wake up to this latest media fabrication, before you blotch another election!
Posted by: arthur | January 7, 2008 4:37 PM
Wow. When did Karl Rove join her team. More fear mongering.
Posted by: Marko | January 7, 2008 4:43 PM
Barack Obama's appeal is based on the premise that all those people who are part of the problem cannot be part of the solution, because if they were part of the solution the problems would have been solved by now. After all most of them have been in Washington long enough. Change for change's sake is not absurd. If you accept the idea that change is absurd you are opposed to capitalism and the American way of life. The very essence of life in this society is change. It is the engine that drives the ecoonmy, politics, sports, everything. Obama is espousing a change in the climate in politics and government that have dominated Washington for decades, which is grounded in fear, deception, and divisiveness. He is a welcome change from clods like McCain, Clinton, Bush, and the rest of the crew who have squatted in Washington like vagrants.
Hillary's tears are good for a few more votes, but are probably the result of the nearly disparaging things that her husband said to Tim Russert.
Posted by: GW | January 7, 2008 4:53 PM
A great moment for Hillary. Women are in a tough spot running for President, because there is so much sexism in the country. If you are too macho like a man, you are not considered a woman. If you are not macho like a man, then you are considered to weak for the job. It was good to see her caring side. No one will look at Hillary as just a person, but always as a person running for President with the female factor.
Posted by: Firstname Lastname | January 7, 2008 5:00 PM
Amen, Arthur!
I, for one, would be happy with Dodd, Biden, or Hillary as president. I like Barack, but while I envision him becoming president in the future, two years in the Senate is not enough for me.
Everyone promises "change," but one person cannot accomplish this overnight - and Dems who think he can are naive. The only realistic way this can happen is if we booted out everyone now there -- but with congressional elections occurring only every two years, pretty tough to do. So the reality is that the person who is elected must be able to navigate his way through Washington and all its dysfunction. Additionally, foreign policy and national security is the most pressing issue facing us today. If McCain ends up getting the GOP nomination, Barack will get killed in the general election. I, a Democrat, would vote for McCain before Obama in that match-up.
Further, I have a hard time believing that Obama will prevail in a general election. He is to the left of Hillary, and as importantly, he hasn't received the media scrutiny that Hillary has. This will come as soon as he gets the nomination, and none of us know what we'll find out. I am disturbed that Democrats are again willing to take the chance.
Posted by: Nick | January 7, 2008 5:03 PM
Can someone pleas tell me where the handbook on how to be the President of THE United States resides? Non of the candidates have experience when it comes to being President. Lets face it folks the Presidency is on the job training. Last time I looked being a First Lady is not a indicator of experience for the nation's highest position!
GO BARACK!!
Posted by: Wake up people! | January 7, 2008 5:09 PM
I'm just upset at this notion that only Democrats raise taxes: What the heck do you call "high gas prices" coupled with a de-valuation of the dollar: TAXATION ON DISCRETIONARY INCOME...mann...wake up
Posted by: Joe | January 7, 2008 5:15 PM
Oh please, her tears were about as believable as were her husbands when he apologized to the nation. Don't buy it, the have pros who have taught them to do this. I guarantee just like her hubby once she went back stage and asked the first person she saw "did they eat it up or what?!"
Posted by: Rational | January 7, 2008 5:24 PM
Arthur is obiously an idiot and has never heard the eloquence of Sen. Obama. It's high time for change, and that cannot be delivered at the hands of Sen. Clinton. Clinton has used a page out of Carl Rove's playbook. She is trying to scare us into voting for her! She is without morals and in her desperation would say or do anything to grasp for power. She doesn't seek to lead America because she has better ideas, she seeks to lead because she feels she deserves it. Sen. Obama will be a strong leader and will face such challenges as good or better than any other candidate. Vote for Change, Obama '08!
Posted by: DC | January 7, 2008 5:25 PM
lol all you can do is misspell Obama's name? Go back to grade shool ya hatchet wound.. plato was right about letting fools like you vote
A vote for change is a good thing! Don't fall for the same fear-mongering BS. It's callous and desperate
Posted by: Choam Nomsky | January 7, 2008 5:39 PM
Just think we still have 9 months to read and listen to candidates yell and scream at each other. Isn't this fun???
Posted by: Joan Hinckley | January 7, 2008 5:45 PM
Edward Lynch, good call! You stole my thunder but you are right, we've heard it all before. Before the Swift Boat and Kerry was looking quite presidential, BUT the Dept of HS came out with warnings of possible attacks, as 1 of hundreds of examples.
arthur: I have to point a few problems. I understand that you are not for Obama, that is OK, I can accept that. BUT, most presidents since the advent of Radio and Television, all are demagogues. Second, I think a change will be welcome after 20 years of a Bush-Clinton Dynasty, 4 to 8 more years of this might just be insane.
And, while I'm at it I will point this out: the only person with the experience to be president is the incumbent president and no one else. Being Governor, Senator, or the Wife of a President is NEVER the same as being president. Therefore no one entering the office for the first time has any experience to be president. Hillary can tout her so-called experience, and Obama can blow-off his lack of experience, and the only one that can come close to having real, high level governmental experience is Richardson, and the public and press just has not warmed up to him.
So, the experience debate in my opinion is moot. I am no Republican, but have to admit that many of the reasons the public was taken with Reagan and to an extent FDR while they were in office was their ability to communicate and inspire hope. Historians generally rank them in the top 10.
One can not dismiss the ability to effectively communicate and inspire. The truly brilliant presidents are those who inspire us to action and thus not have to do all the work by themselves at making a nation great. Most the of the greatest presidents have to be assessed in they way: what do they get us to achieve. Hillary is a good speaker in her own right, BUT because she is hated by many in the nation, inspiring them to action may be very difficult EVEN if she is right.
Posted by: Buckley | January 7, 2008 5:47 PM
People wake up to this latest media fabrication, before you blotch another election!
Posted by: arthur | January 7, 2008 4:37 PM
Take a pill Arthur. Trying to paint Barack as a media fabrication is ridiculous. This man is extremely competent and will make a sterling president.
Obama in 2008 and beyond!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | January 7, 2008 5:52 PM
Senator Clinton is enduring some very lazy, cynical politcal analysis in this campaign. I really hope, for our Country, that she gets fair consideration of her experience and platform in the end. The campaign process, in its present form, is quite punishing to observe. It's a real rifle range.
Posted by: Daniel | January 7, 2008 6:17 PM
When you're filling your car with $3 gas and buying some $2.65 a dozen eggs, remember who is running on stopping deficit spending. The war for oil is what caused prices for anything that eats grain to skyrocket. When THOSE prices rise, the fresh fruit seller raises his prices again, now you have some nice $5 a pound grapes in the market. Laugh all you want, it's YOUR money being spent. YOU'RE the one going to pay $250 a week for groceries. Still think Ron Paul sounds like a bad idea? He's the ONLY candidate, Republican or Democrat that is running on reducing your cost of living. Maybe you have plenty money. Me, I'm not so rich.
Posted by: Louis Nardozi | January 7, 2008 6:45 PM
Bottom line:
I think Hillary Clinton must get back on that horse that brutally through her to the ground back in 1993. That horse is HR 676 (Medicare For all). Insurance mandates of any kind are totally unacceptable to the American people . Thank God. The vast majority of Americans know better than that now. They want single payer tax supported government managed universal health care free for all as a right. And they want it NOW! And they are right to demand it. The American people are suffering by the millions, and dieing by the ten's of thousands now. It's not just about everyone having coverage anymore. It's about the disgraceful quality of health care in America. Even for people with the best insurance coverage you can buy. And it has to end.
I have enormous admiration, and respect for Hillary Clinton. She fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds back in 1993. To prevent this disastrous health care crisis that is now devastating the American people, and America. She fought so hard for the American people that she risk almost completely destroying her husbands presidency. I haven't forgot her heroic effort. If anyone has reason to be reluctant to get back on that bucking bronc again, it's her.
But I think the time is now. And more importantly. I think the American people are ready to do what they have got to do. To fix our disastrous, and deadly health care delivery system. At least I hope so. For all our sakes. Hillary Clinton is right. This is not a game. It's bigger than parties, and politics. It's about the life, or continued needless deaths of millions of Americans. And HR 676 (Medicare For All) is the way to save us.
Posted by: jacksmith | January 7, 2008 6:50 PM
I echo the comments another person posted about H. Clinton's remarks about IF there is "another terrorist attack" being a well-known W. Bush tactic to stir up fear in people's minds, in order to get them to lose focus on what's REALLY happening around them! The Clintons are just the flip side of the same coin the Bushs are minted on!!! Think about it fellow American... Bush, Clinton, another Bush, and now, possibly, yet ANOTHER Clinton??? The potential of 32 YEARS of US politics being governed by these mere two families?!? Didn't our Founding Fathers revolt from being subservient to "royalty"?!? OBAMA/EDWARDS 2008!!!
Posted by: Rex Tyson | January 7, 2008 7:10 PM
Crocodile tears from Hillary, and I wouldn't be surprised if that 'iron my shirt' stunt was actually staged by her campaign to score some cheap points.
Posted by: Radian | January 7, 2008 7:49 PM
I agree being married to the president does NOT give you experience especially when he is a lying snake and you blissfully stand by his side even though you're not the 'stand by your man stereotype' Barack should call HER on that. And her nickname should be Irwin because those tears were very crocodile and extremely fake funny how miss I don't want ot be judged on being a woman is using one of the OLDEST female ploys in the damn book. I'm surprised she didn't blurt out 'you hit me cause I'm a girl!' she is just as shady and sneaky as her creep husband so yeah she has LOTs of experience with that.
Posted by: Lavern Morris | January 7, 2008 8:11 PM
What a repellant, boo hoo po little ol me whiner!
America will be a better, more forward looking country once Sen. Clinton and her posse lumber back to and under their NY rock.
Posted by: remus | January 7, 2008 8:32 PM
If you liked Bush you'll Love Hillary. Do we really need to continue the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dynasty? Plus we need the White House furniture to stay in the White House. Obama cares more about the people and he won't play the weeping gender card.
Posted by: Dorothy | January 7, 2008 8:40 PM
Please. Hillary's been taking Method Acting classes from Bill. That was a charade designed to contrast her to her all-male rivals.
I have no doubt about her sincerity as far as 'wanting to do the right thing for her country', but her political philosophy is laid bare in her statement - that she and the people she'll have in her administration know better than you or I what is better for us, and can do a better job than us in managing our health care, education, retirement finances, etc.
Posted by: Pete | January 7, 2008 9:07 PM
If you don't vote for me I'll cry...for real this time...maybe. I'm suppose to be woman, right?
Posted by: Denise | January 7, 2008 10:25 PM
If you liked Bush you'll Love Hillary. Do we really need to continue the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton dynasty? Plus we need the White House furniture to stay in the White House. Obama cares more about the people and he won't play the weeping gender card.
Posted by: Dorothy | January 7, 2008 8:40 PM
Right on Dorothy!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | January 7, 2008 10:44 PM
we all like obama, we gonna vote for him. is all about obamaaaaaaaaaa. we love u
Posted by: nana ama | January 8, 2008 1:42 AM
Wow. She is such a smooth talker. I can't believe how she turns words of her opponents into words of an unpatriotic citizen. J***s. She should shut her trap and let obama do his good for our country.
Posted by: Blue | January 8, 2008 11:20 AM