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Democratic Rivals Sharpen Attacks As Iowa Caucuses Loom

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By ANNE E. KORNBLUT and DAN BALZ, The Washington Post

Published: December 27, 2007

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa - With just eight days left to break a three-way deadlock in the Democratic race in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York began delivering a closing argument Wednesday that centered around the experience she and her husband gained in the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, her two chief rivals stated they could best succeed in bringing change to Washington.

The issues of experience and change have defined the Democratic race for nearly a year, and the dichotomy continued to dominate as the three front-runners hit the campaign trail running after a Christmas break.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who plans to make his endgame pitch in a speech today, urged voters to ask themselves, "Do you believe in change?"

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards detoured through New Hampshire before a planned return to Iowa, saying his is a more radical call for change than Obama's. Clinton and Obama are launching new television ads in the state to bolster their efforts as the three remain tightly bunched in surveys.

Clinton, campaigning with her husband and daughter on a tour themed "It's Time to Pick a President," injected a note of menace into her case, saying that "the job itself is unpredictable" and only she among the candidates is qualified to do it.

"You never know what may happen in some part of the world that will create a real challenge to us here at home, here in Iowa," Clinton told a packed auditorium Wednesday.

Polls show experience has been the attribute on which Clinton has enjoyed the biggest advantage over Edwards and Obama. And she has pounded the theme on the stump.

Her competitors have contended she has the wrong kind of experience to bring change to the White House, and sought to turn a potential asset into a liability for her.

Clinton has shifted from theme to theme in the final weeks of a race that has remained consistently up for grabs, but she seemed to settle back on her original experience argument after two months of attempting to show voters a softer side.

Wednesday, she criticized Obama's character and questioned whether other Democratic contenders are equipped to beat the Republican nominee. Former President Clinton, introducing his wife, promised that "if she is the Democratic nominee, I believe she will win the election, and win by a handsome margin."

In addition to the former president, a team of so-called "Hill's Angels" that includes fundraiser Terry McAuliffe and women's outreach organizer Ann Lewis is planning to fan out across Iowa on Clinton's behalf.

Obama will use his speech this morning in Des Moines to frame his case to the voters of Iowa, but as he rolled through north-central Iowa on Wednesday he offered a preview, pleading with voters to have the courage to vote their hopes and not their fears. "If you believe I can be the next president of the United States, it can happen," he told an overflow crowd in Webster City.

Obama directly addressed doubts voters may have about him and warned that, in the final days in Iowa, his opponents likely would seek to exploit them even more.

"People start running negative ads or negative mail and they start planting seeds of doubt," he said. "They say, 'Oh, you know, Obama is young,' or 'You know, is he electable enough?'"

Obama exhorted his audiences to put their faith in their own instincts.

"The question is: Do you believe in change?" he said. "The question is: Do you believe deep in your gut that we can do better than we're doing?

"You know we can and you have to trust that sense that we can do better because every generation is tested in this way and this is our moment to try to break out of the conventional wisdom and get something done."

Edwards campaigned in New Hampshire, which one adviser called a sign of the candidate's growing confidence he is in a strong position in Iowa and determined not to repeat his mistake of four years ago, when he put too little effort into the Granite State and finished poorly after a strong second-place showing in Iowa.

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