Clinton Makes Final Appeal To Iowa Voters

In Two-Minute Television Message, Democratic Candidate Urges Voters To "Take The First Step"

(AP)  Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton will make her closing argument to Iowa voters Wednesday evening during a televised message in which she tells them to "take the first step" toward changing the direction of the country by voting for her at the caucuses.

"After all the town meetings, the pie and coffee, it all comes down to this: Who is ready to be president and ready to start solving the big challenges we face on Day One," Clinton says in the two-minute appeal to be broadcast during evening news programs on the eve of the caucuses.

The former first lady and senator from New York recounts her months of stumping through Iowa, noting "the stories you have shared will always stay with me." Iowa, first among the states to choose the nominees for president, holds its caucuses Thursday night.

"I know you have waited a long time for a president who could hear you and see you," Clinton says. "I would like to be that president. So I ask you to caucus for me tomorrow. Put on your coats and call up a friend and help me change America."

Clinton has bought two minutes of air time on the early evening local newscasts in every media market in the state. Her campaign provided a copy of the ad to The Associated Press.

"As we start this new year, America is at a crossroads,' she says. "We're a nation at war in a dangerous world. We have a faltering economy and 47 million people without health care."

Clinton talks directly to the camera as she summarizes her bid, arguing as she has on the stump that she alone has the experience - eight years as first lady and seven years in the Senate - to take command of the White House on Day One.

Simple and spare in production, her campaign tries to create the aura of an Oval Office address with the ad. In a close-up shot and seen only from the shoulders up, Clinton is seated and dressed in a brown suit jacket with what appear to be a window and table topped with flowers in a vase in the background.

"I'm not running for president to put Band-Aids on our problems. I'm running to solve them," she said, as she has many times at campaign events.

In retelling stories she heard while campaigning, Clinton adds a human touch to deflect criticism that she is cold and calculating.

Most surveys show Clinton in a close and fluid three-way contest with rivals Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Those surveys also have identified a large group of activists who have yet to settle on a candidate or who say they could still change their minds.

Clinton's rivals weren't ceding the airwaves. Obama also was to air a two-minute ad during the evening news programs. Edwards bought a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register featuring a testimonial from a laid-off Maytag plant worker, who also was appearing in a one-minute TV spot to begin airing Wednesday.

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"You have welcomed me into your hearts and your homes. And I thank you," Clinton says in her ad. "Parents juggling jobs to pay for college for their kids, soldiers' families praying for a safe return. All the men and women across the state who have whispered their health care problems to me - bills they can't pay, parents they can't afford to care for, insurance companies who refuse to help."

"If you stand with me for one night, I will stand up for you every day as your president," she says. "I'll work my heart out to bring the country we love the new beginning it needs and I will be ready to start on Day One."

[ianlou]

%u2026Continued
Hilary said she would not support this solution because it would hurt the middleclass. MIDDLECLASS!!!
Since when is $98,500 per year middleclass? A dual income family at that rate would be considered, by her, middle class making $198,000 per year. Hilary obviously has spent too much time around middle class Manhattans.
Since she does not want to "overstress" these "middleclass" Americans (and everyone else making more money than this all the way up to Bill Gates) with a tax increase, she instead proposes to raise the eligibility age for retirement benefits for the rest of us middleclass baby boomers by half a decade at a time when we probably only have half to one and a half decades left in our lives. And to think I%u2019ve been paying into this pot with money taken from my paycheck every week of my entire working life.

Frankly this %u201CLet them eat Cake%u201D attitude of Hilary%u2019s is something I would expect from Bush.

Thank you Barack Obama, for realizing that the average American is tired of working hard for the heavily lobbied plight of the wealthy.

[ianlou]

Hilary lost my vote during the Las Vegas debate when she said that she would not support the idea of raising the $98,500 per person income limit to be taxed for Social Security. Barack Obama is promoting this as a solution for the Social Security Crises. The idea is to extend the 6.2% FICA tax to ALL gross income instead of just the first $98,500, this solution would raise trillions for Social Security by taxing people who can afford it.
We could also remove the ceiling on the monthly retirement check so millionaires would get retirement payments to match their contributions like the rest of us IF , like the rest of us, they are fortunate enough to live that long.
More%u2026

[moxford0]

I would hope the first order of president to be Hillary Clinton, would be to declare the Republican party a terrorist organization and place the members in cages at Gitmo without trial for an eternity. Feed them tainted dog food. Perhaps Mike Huckabee could lead services on Sunday. As for Bush and Cheney,solitary confinement in a bathroom stall with Sen.Larry Craig would be in order. The stall would provide all the nurishment they would ever need.

[slpdisk]

WHO IS RON PAUL?

[gunownerdan]

Hitlery is just another lying warmongering neocon.

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program.
He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

[jack3213]

On Jan. 19, 1992 Bill Clinton said, "I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my view, is central to any attempt we''re going to make to have a short-term economic strategy." But on Jan. 14, 1993 at a press conference, Bill Clinton said, "From New Hampshire forward, for reasons that absolutely mystified me, the press thought the most important issue in the race was the middle-class tax cut. "I never did meet any voter who thought that." So in other words, Bill Clinton did not agree that cutting taxes for the middle class was very important. Also: On Sept. 8,1992, Bill Clinton said, "The only people who will pay more income taxes are the wealthiest 2 percent, those living in households making over $200,000 a year." In response to a Bush-Quayle ad that people with incomes of as little as $36,000 would pay more taxes under the Clinton plan, Bill Clinton said on Oct. 1, 1992, "It''s a disgrace to the American people that the president (Bush) of the United States would make a claim that is so baseless, that is so without foundation, so shameless in its attempt to get votes under false pretenses." "While Clinton continued to defend his middle-class tax cut publicly, he privately expressed the view to his advisers that it was intellectually dishonest." In other words, Bill was full of it when he lied to the American people about a middle class tax cut.... Hillary forgets that Congress sets the agenda when it comes to middle class tax cuts, not the president.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by gunownerdan at 12:18 PM : Jan 02, 2008

HOGWARSH! In all the positive or negative information I''ve read on Hillary, has given one indication this is true.

[apolloknowsa]

Hillary is so genuine. I can really relate to her, especially now that she thinks that she is too good to even talk with the people, I love her even more.

What a crock. Since we caught her planting questions, she won''t answer any.

She is the biggest phony, power mad freak I have ever met.

Her comments regarding her international experience are fraudulent. According to judicialwatch.org she is the most corrupt politician. No surprise there. She learned from the most corrupt politician since Andrew Jackson.

[realpatriot1]

I have a t-shirt for Hillary to wear; it says,"I stayed married to this pig for 7 years and all I have to show for it is a 3rd place finish in Iowa!"

[gunownerdan]

Hitlery is more of a warmongering fascist than many republicans are.
She''s also a gun-banning extremist.
Nothing good can come from Hitlery.