by Tim Jones

Sen. Hillary Clinton is set to campaign in Indiana today, from top to almost bottom, carrying her economic revival message from industrial Hobart in the northwest to the rural soybean reaches of downstate Princeton, about a half-hour from the Ohio River.

For those Hoosiers who have not seen the former First Lady in person, be prepared for a polished and energetic performance worthy of a 21st Century Norma Rae. The senator from New York, as the campaign says, is out to "jumpstart the economy, create new, high-wage jobs, and restore the middle class."

Just as Sen. Barack Obama is trying to shed the image of an effete eilite, the upscale, suburban Chicago girl is working hard to portray herself as a small-town girl, born of solid Midwestern values. The warm-up song played as Clinton arrives is John Mellencamp's "Small Town," a not-at-all-subtle dig at Sen. Barack Obama's remarks about small town voters.

At a rally last Wednesday in Indianapolis, the Wellesley and Yale-educated Clinton used the jock-ish and un-Ivy League vernacular "you know" 16 times in a 35-minute address.

In Fort Wayne, she talked of going to church three times a week with her family. And in all of her stops, the candidate who belted down beer and whiskey in Pennsylvania always talks of her father saying there was enough money for college tuition. But she said if she wanted money for books "and a cup of coffee" during her 1960's-era college years, she was on her own. Never beer, never whiskey, never wine. Always coffee.

And then there will be a recitation of her record. "This is too important an election," Clinton told a rally Friday in Bloomington. "And we have to know exactly where people stand, not what somebody says, but what they've actually done and what they say they will do."

With that in mind, take a scorecard and see if Clinton, as she consistently does, calls for the repeal of the No Child Left Behind law. She voted for it in the Senate. The same goes for ending the war in Iraq. Clinton voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq.

And there almost certainly will be another call for Obama to debate her in Indiana, one-on-one, just like the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

"You know, after the last debate in Philadelphia, Sen. Obama's supporters, you know, complained a little bit about the tough questions," Clinton told a rally on Saturday in South Bend. "You know, tough questions in a debate are nothing compared to the tough questions you get when you're president."

But at the Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland on Feb. 26, it was Clinton who complained to the debate moderator, "Well, can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time. And I don't mind. I - you know, I'll be happy to field them, but . . . . I just find it kind of curious that I keep getting the first question on all of these issues."

Clinton will follow those visits with appearances Wednesday in Kokomo and Thursday in Terre Haute.