Posted on 12/15/2007 5:31:25 PM PST by doug from upland
Lead in doubt, Clinton knocks on N.Hampshire doors
Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:15pm EST Obama edges ahead of
By Scott Malone
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton went door-to-door in freezing New Hampshire on Saturday, asking for support in the early voting state where her once-huge lead in the Democratic presidential primary race has melted away.
The New York senator knocked on doors along a snow-covered block of Manchester, less than a month before the crucial January 8 New Hampshire primary, the second binding contest of the 2008 presidential campaign.
"I'd be honored to have your support," Clinton said on the front porch of Mike Glickstein, a Manchester resident.
Glickstein, a 38-year-old maintenance worker whose beagle howled incessantly as he spoke to the former first lady, said he had intended to vote for Clinton already.
"I like her support of the middle class, I like her husband a lot," Glickstein said, referring to former President Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton has seen her lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her main rival for the Democratic nomination, evaporate both in New Hampshire and Iowa, which on January 3 kicks off the state-by-state contests to choose the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
Two polls this week showed Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat in New Hampshire, each with the support of about 30 percent of voters. In September, Clinton had led Obama by 20 points.
PERSONAL CAMPAIGNING KEY
In a subsequent speech to voters in Plaistow, New Hampshire, Clinton said the state would be important to her efforts to secure her party's nomination.
"I'm counting on you for this primary election," she said. "It's a decision that I know you take very seriously. That's why you attend events like this, that's why you open your doors to us when we come knocking."
Clinton said that if elected she would work to find a way of providing universal health care to U.S. citizens, a fight she faced before as First Lady when her husband was president. She also said she would do away with the controversial education program No Child Left Behind and that if elected she would call on the leaders of the top emitters of greenhouse gases to meet every three months to agree on a solution to cut back their emissions.
Lou D'Allesandro, a New Hampshire state senator who accompanied Clinton as she knocked on about 10 doors, said personal campaigning was critical in his state.
"Politics is connecting with people, and this is how you do it here. I'd like to see her here more," he said.
Clinton's advisers once saw New Hampshire as a "firewall," which could protect her if she did poorly in Iowa, said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala.
"The firewall has largely disappeared now," he said. "If she loses both ... it would be very difficult to recover."
After New Hampshire, the next big contest is in South Carolina, where the large black population could flock to Obama, a fellow African American, Scala said.
"She's very intelligent, she has a lot of charisma. I wish she would talk more about women, because I think that would be helpful," said Herb Meyer, a 50-year-old physician from Danville, New Hampshire, who turned out to see Clinton in Plaistow.
"She's got a lot of presence, Barack Obama has a lot of presence," Meyer said, adding that he wasn't yet sure for whom he would vote.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
Good thing she didn’t knock on my door. I would probably ask her to repeat her spiel to my moon.
Hillary going door-to-door.. lol.. looking for Bill , no doubt..
The Boston Globe just endorsed Obama (and McCain). Poor Hilly!
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/boston_globe_endorses_obama_mc.html
Dogs always know. :)
How she must despise having to do this. Warms the cockles of my heart :)
If she knocked on my door I'd turn the hose on her. I hear she hates water.
I wish she’d come knock on my door.
But she’s probably better off staying in Manchester where she’ll no doubt get a better reception from the Glicksteins and thier neighbors than she would up here in the woods.
10 doors? This was nothing but a pres photo-op, not personal campaigning.
How much would you be willing to bet that these visits were scripted?
Yeah, the Boston Glob. Tough luck, Hil. Maybe another nail in the coffin. One can only hope.
So, she didn’t try to sell them Avon products?
GOOD DOG!
Beagles know when the devil knocks.
A full day's work for the Toon I see. 10 doors who support her.
Rooters quotes one citizen who is already a Spitoon fan and a Dem pol who is showing her around the state?
yitbos
The Secret Service, and her own security, is not going to let her knock on random doors. No doubt each house and the residents were checked out before she ever got there with the cameras following her.
I’m sure the 10 doors she knocked on were randomly selected houses and not pre-screened clinton supporter houses. /sarc off
Reminds me of a Bob Dylan song....
There is something almost pathetic about this woman’s lust for the presidency. The voters of NH should beware of someone who risks pneumonia for a few lousy votes.
Not lookin' real spry there.
Suggested caption by Dagnabitt:
"I can't feel my hooves."
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