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)
The biggest mistake anyone can make is to underestimate Hitlery. She went all over NY state and won. I agree with Rush, I will not believe she is done until I hear her concession speech.
Agreed. Obama could win the first four contests and she could still win.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yeah that would be a plus. The sad thing is that from the left she is probably the best of the bunch. Obama and Edwards are little boys with naive world views.
Dear God, What if Mia-T opened her door one night to see that Hillary Clinton had personally come to her house.
Well,s he will now be POTUS...this is just a little ploy to make others let their guard down, and at the right time she roars back to the White House...count on her being the next POTUS..........
Knocked on ten doors? Sheesh, what a stunt.
I have them right where I want them.....(laughs that unnatural laugh)
She ain't no ways tahrd. She come too faarrrh.
“.....(laughs that unnatural laugh)”
You almost get the feeling that you could hear that laugh in one room while seeing Hillary in another. That laugh seems to almost be it’s own entity.
Yep. A month ago, I would have guessed she would have gotten the endorsement. Peter Paul was on their biggest station a few weeks ago. Several of their reporters have received info from me. That have refused to write the story, but I wonder if just a little damage is being done.
Scott Malone will probably be fired for telling the ten door secret. LOL
In some quarters their endorsement is considered a kiss of death, so I’m not worried.
She ain’t on that red state carpet by accident.......
Like she's out there all alone...like poor little Charlie Brown lookin' for a Christmas tree!
Doug, what ever happened to Harry and Linda Bloodworth Thomason? I haven’t read they are aiding Hillary’s campaign.
Is that Huma waiting by the car?
The New York senator knocked on doors along a snow-covered block of Manchester...
One block equals about 10 houses. She did it in the cold daylight. Oh how brave of her. Was Huma there to keep her warm?
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