by Rick Pearson
BROWNSBURG, Ind.--Sen. Hillary Clinton called herself the "Goldilocks" of the nation's presidential campaign today, saying her proposals on issues such as cutting federal gasoline taxes were "just right" for middle-class Americans compared to Barack Obama and John McCain.
At the same time, she labeled opponents of her plan to suspend the federal 18.4 cent per gallon gasoline tax as elitists, a criticism aimed at her Democratic presidential rival, Sen. Barack Obama, and others who have contended the plan would save motorists little, guarantee no savings and display a quick fix mentality that does nothing to curb the reliance on foreign oil.
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, has called proposals to cut gasoline taxes for the summer a "Washington gimmick" pushed by Clinton and McCain, the Arizona senator who is the presumptive Republican nominee. Clinton supports replacing lost revenues with a tax on oil companies while McCain has said general federal revenues should make up for dollars lost to the federal highway construction fund.
"You know, Sen. Obama says we shouldn't do it and it's a gimmick. And Sen. McCain says we should do it, but we shouldn't pay for it," Clinton said. "I sometimes feel like the Goldilocks of this campaign: Not too much. Not too little. Just right."
Speaking to a group comprised mostly of women at the town hall in Brownsburg, a western suburb of Indianapolis, Clinton said critics of her gas-tax suspension proposal are showing they don't understand the problems facing the working class.
"I find it, frankly, a little offensive that people who don't have to worry about filling up their gas tank or what they buy when they go to the supermarket think that it's somehow illegitimate to provide relief for the millions and millions of Americans who are on the brink of losing their job," she said.
Clinton has counted on white blue-collar voters for her recent successes in Ohio and Pennsylvania that have kept her campaign viable and those voters are a key demographic for her in Indiana, a must-win state, which holds its primary on Tuesday along with North Carolina.
Joined on a small stage by her mother, Dorothy Rodham, and Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, the New York senator's appearance promoted a "family conversation" to a clearly supportive audience.
Chelsea Clinton urged the group to back her mother so she can help "all our families" and to "help what she hopes will be our growing family soon--as I know she wants grandchildren."
Chelsea Clinton said her mother "would be the best president for me as a single 28-year-old and also for me as the young mother that I hope to be under our next president."
Hillary Clinton also noted she had spoken Wednesday night with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who has been actively campaigning in both Indiana and North Carolina.
"He's in North Carolina, having a great time traveling the small towns in North Carolina, eating a lot of barbeque," the senator said of her husband. "I said, 'You know, maybe once a day?'
Posted by Mark Silva on May 1, 2008 12:35 PM