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Sen. Clinton Refocuses Her Strategy On Young, Independent Voters

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By PATRICK HEALY and JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times

Published: January 5, 2008

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband have been in career-threatening scrapes before, but never quite like the one they face in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, when nothing less than their would-be dynasty will be on the line.

In trying to battle back from her loss in the Iowa caucuses to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton is recalibrating her message in hopes of producing Comeback Kid: The Sequel - achieving the reversal of fortune her husband pulled off with his second-place finish here in the Democratic nomination contest in 1992.

Clinton, after arriving here at 4 a.m. Friday, used a rally in Nashua to begin focusing on young voters and independents, two groups that flocked to the Obama banner in Iowa.

She said she wanted to appeal to young people and surrounded herself with them at the rally, in contrast to her caucus night party where older, familiar faces from the Clinton administration and her political team stood out.

Yet many of the challenges and questions she faced in Iowa, such as Clinton fatigue and the generational showdown with Obama, remained part of her baggage as she flew east.

Although she is ahead in public polls here, she faces a popularity contest against Obama. There were empty seats, for instance, at a rally Clinton held with students at the University of New Hampshire on Friday afternoon.

Her campaign, while trying to fine-tune its strategy, is also engaging in some finger-pointing.

Some advisers say the campaign miscalculated in having the former president play such a public role, that Clinton could not effectively position herself as a change agent, the profile du jour for Democrats, so long as he stood as a reminder that her presidency would be much like his.

Other advisers say Obama now owns the "change" mantra and that Clinton needs a Plan B.

"Hillary says she'll change things, but then voters see Bill and hear them talk about the 1990s, and it's clear that the Clintons are not offering change but rather Clinton Part 2," said one political veteran who had advised both Clintons. "That won't win."

Beating a sunny, charismatic opponent like Obama, especially given his embrace by such a cross-section of Iowa voters, is not part of the Clinton experience.

When facing political crises, the couple's modus operandi has been to attack their attackers and question their motives.

However, Obama is not Kenneth Starr, Newt Gingrich or Paula Jones; a presidential campaign is not a Washington scandal; and the Clinton strategy of attacking Obama's readiness for the presidency did not work in Iowa.

The New York senator suggested she would be more direct in pointing out contrasts between her experience and policy ideas and Obama's, both on the campaign trail and in their TV debate tonight.

"I am making the case for myself, but I think one of the ways I make that is by drawing contrasts," Clinton said in Nashua.

She stuck to a theme Friday she has been using against Obama for months, that her health care plan would mandate that all Americans get coverage while his would not.

She is also counting on her base of support and endorsements here, much deeper than in Iowa, to counter Obama's appeal to young people and independents.

Fifty percent of voters who were 44 and younger supported Obama in Iowa, compared with 16 percent for Clinton, according to a poll of Democrats entering caucus sites Thursday. Overall, 52 percent of voters said they backed the candidate who would bring needed change, and Obama won 51 percent of their support.

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