Clinton Moves On After Saturday's Losses
MANASSAS, VA. -- Hillary Clinton stumped in Northern Virginia in an area that has a high Hispanic population, but the crowd at Grace E. Metz Middle School was made up primarily of white women, another key voting block for Clinton. She told the crowd of 1,500 supporters, "I haven't had the great pleasure of campaigning as much as I would have liked to in this Commonwealth."
Clinton, who yesterday lost three states to Barack Obama, chose not to mention anything about his victories. Instead she took jabs at him during her standard stump speech.
When talking about the problems the next president will face Clinton said, "That president will walk into that Oval Office and no matter how big the crowd is at the inauguration, making those decisions will rest on the shoulders of that one person."
Clinton continued to target Obama without naming him, making light of the fact that one of Obama's strong points is the way he delivers his speeches.
"People say to me all the time, 'you're so specific. You talk about all these things you want to do. Why don't you just come and you know, really give us one of these great rhetorical flourishes and get everyone all whooped up?'" Clinton said to laughter and applause. "Well, I want you to hold me accountable; I want you to know what I will do as president."
For months Clinton's strategy has been to paint Obama as an inexperienced candidate and now, with the expected nomination of John McCain on the Republican side, Clinton hopes that her years in the Senate and her experience will help undecided voters back her candidacy.
Part of her new message focuses on going "toe-to-toe" against McCain on issues like national security, an issue Clinton trumpets is a strength she has over Obama.
"For us who are Democrats, we also have to ask 'Who can win? Who can go the distance?' I want you to think about this, if Senator McCain is the nominee for the Republicans – as it appears he's going to be – you know that they will do anything in their power to make this election about national security, about homeland security, that is exactly what will happen. I look forward to standing on that stage."