At Indiana Rally, Clinton Plays Up Midwestern Values

(CBS)

From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:


FT. WAYNE, IND. -- During a campaign rally in this heartland city today, Hillary Clinton channeled her middle class upbringing in order to relate directly with voters, recounting tales of potluck dinners at her church and painting drapes in her father's business when she was a child.

"I was born in Chicago and my dad was a small business man – I mean a small business man – he had a small drapery business where he would actually print drapery fabrics and travel around and sell them and he usually enlisted my mother, my brothers, and me," Clinton said. "You take a squeegee and you do the paint and you pick it up and you move it down the table, it was pretty labor intensive work. But it was one of the many experiences that really taught me the values I had my entire life: hard work, self reliance, individual responsibility good Midwestern values that we were raised with."

Although Clinton often tells stories about how she was raised, this was one of the only times she seemed to be spelling out to voters, 'Pick me, I am one of you.'

She spoke of her father, who served in the navy during World War II, settling his family down in the Chicago suburbs. "That's where we grew up, so we went to the schools in walking distance, we went to the church in walking distance," Clinton told the large crowd that braved intense wind and chilly temperatures to listen to her speak.

"We were at church about three times a week," she continued. "To go to Sunday school, to go back for youth fellowship, to go back for the potluck dinner in the middle of the week and see all kinds of molded salads of every sort that one could imagine."

After the trip down memory lane, Clinton seemed to be getting to her campaign message of the day, which is that she is the candidate who holds the down-to-earth values of Indiana voters, not her opponent. "We need a president, especially after the last seven years of George Bush, who doesn't just make speeches about American values but understands them, and lives them and believes them and wants to make sure they are available for everybody," she said.

The Clinton campaign has been painting Barack Obama as an elitist liberal after comments he made at a closed fundraiser in San Francisco earlier this month where he said middle class Americans were "bitter" over their economic situation which is why so many of them "cling" to guns and religion. The comments hurt Obama in the Pennsylvania primary, and no doubt the Clinton campaign will continue to push the message that Obama is out of touch with middle class voters.

[lizainsf]

Hillary was born in Chicago? I had no idea. I get so confused about her upbringing whereabouts. When someone asks "where are you from?" what does she say? I guess it depends on which state she is campaigning at the time. One day, during the Penn primary, I''m watching an ad using old black and white movie clips, saying she vacationed in Scranton, PA with her family as a young girl; next I hear she''s was out in Penn with her grandfather learning how to use a shot gun. Next I hear she grew up in Arkansas. Now she resides in New York. It gets confusing. Now she''s getting down and dirty in Indiana talking about eating molded salads in the mid west. It''s like she knows everyone in every state. In any event, does Hillary prefer Ambrosia or Jello?

It breaks my heart that her dad was a small business man--I mean a small business man. I''m sorry Hillary had to endure such back breaking work as a child painting draperies using a squeegee with her father. What state did her dad''s small business reside? Illinois? Indiana? I''m tired.

[blkpresident]

roni1214,

Wow, and I thought lil'' Hillary was a first-class pipe-dreamer, but your favorable comments of her about takes the cake. WE ARE A NATION AT WAR, soooooo, America needs a president the terrorist respect and fear. What''s so scary about lil'' missy in an apron offering baked goods to terrorist? lil'' Hillary is out of the question this year and so is grandpa(McCain).

[roni1214]

. Obama has a great message of change --however critical thinkers know rhetoric

2. Obama makes excellent points about how best to change Washington--but goes right back and takes oil $, (in previous races) took federal lobbyist money....thus the fact: He is a politician. His campaign is very similar to that of another political figure in Massachusetts. I still wonder why after all those endorsements from Kennedy, Kerry ---why Hillary trounced on Obama in Mass. Probably because the voters have seen the same campaign in their state, and didn''t get "the change" promised in the campaign. Just a thought.

3. I think Obama is a patriot but there are some that agree that this issue shouldn''t be hanging over a presidential candidates heading in a general election, especially against a war hero.

4. Obama has few accomplishments in the US Senate. A very short record of bridging Dems and Republicans. A strong claim, but nothing to base that claim on besides his word.

5. I know Obama is highly intelligent, too and yet Obama claims he has the good judgment of a president, yet his closest associates, friends, and mentors are suspect, ok highly suspect.

[roni1214]

Simple.

1. Hillary is more electable--based on her democratic base

2. Hillary has more foreign policy experience, period

3. Hillary has a solid record of building the lives of families and children, basic unit of society

4. No doubts that Hillary is a patriot

5. Hillary is highly intelligent humanitarian/ politician

[blkpresident]

Syofie,

Lil'' Hillary is the best choice???? Why would America trust her foreign-policy judgement? Why would America trust her to improve our sagging economy? Terrorist don''t play softball or powder-puff football either. lil'' missy will only coddle terrorist; America doesn''t need a president who spends more time in the White House kitchen than the Situation Room. Missy''s out. It''s really that simple.

[syofie]

Hillary is the best, vote for Hillary. Obama is out-of-touch with the middle class and is too elitist.

[blkpresident]

Somewhere in NY a kitchen stove needs a woman''s touch. Where''s lil'' missy? Still criss-crossing America pipe dreaming about a woman becoming president. Someone needs to tell lil'' missy that America is at war in not one but two hotspots around the world, so a cake mixing bowl full of brownies isn''t the type of foreign policy America needs at this juncture in our history.

[seanwhit]

How many hometowns does Hillary have? Indiana if you fall for her lies you deserve exactly what you are going to get for the next four years-nothing!

[stopthehype]

greenfun: here you are again. you hillary supporters copy and paste the same statements on every post. Get a life!

[greenfun]

Obama and Emil Jones:

I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as follows:

"He said, ''Cliff, I''m gonna make me a U.S. Senator.''"

"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"

"Barack Obama."

Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.

"I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen," State Senator Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of landmark racial profiling and videotaped confession legislation yanked away by Jones and given to Obama, complained to me at the time. "Barack didn''t have to endure any of it, yet, in the end, he got all the credit.

"I don''t consider it bill jacking," Hendon told me. "But no one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the one-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and the stats in the record book."