Clinton likens herself to cattle in Iowa

Photo: Clinton likens herself to cattle in Iowa

Democrat hopeful candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said that she was to woo undecided voters in the closing days before Iowa 's pivotal caucuses leadoff the presidential nomination season.

She said to a crowd in western Iowa “I've been to cattle barns before and sales before, in Arkansas , but I've never felt like I was the one that was being bid on. I know you're going to inspect me. You can look inside my mouth if you want. I hope by the end of my time with you I can make the case for my candidacy and to ask you to consider caucusing for me."

The comments were maid just three weeks before Iowa’s January 3 caucuses. Buoyed by the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper, Clinton said she "could not be more pumped up" and that her campaign had regained its momentum after several shaky weeks.

Clinton arrived in Iowa for a three-day campaign blitz, and the endorsement in Sunday's Des Moines Register gave a huge lift to the Clinton team. The polls have shown a tight contest between the most popular democrat candidates - Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards. But Obama seems to be leading in some surveys. Clinton ’s once formidable lead in other early state polls like New Hampshire and South Carolina has also appeared to vanish.

To push back, the New York senator and a team of surrogates and supporters were fanning out across Iowa to host events in the state's 99 counties during the last full week before the campaigns pause to observe Christmas.

The caucuses in the rural, midwestern state of Iowa is the crucial first contest in political parties' state-by-state process of selecting presidential nominees. Candidates who do well in the caucuses, and in the New Hampshire primary five days later, can gain momentum and media attention, establishing themselves as front-runners. Those who do poorly often decide to drop out of the race.

Clinton herself was flying from stop to stop on a "Hilli-copter" to reach as many geographic regions of the ice-crusted state as possible.

Among supporters making an appearance was Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator and governor whose state borders Iowa.

Kerrey, who ran briefly for the Democratic nomination in 1992 against Bill Clinton, said he was endorsing Hillary Clinton "enthusiastically and unequivocally.

"She inspires my confidence. The question is, does she inspire your confidence?" Kerrey asked.

Clinton also unveiled a retooled stump speech Sunday that stressed her record of working for change in public policy throughout her career as a lawyer and later as first lady and a senator.

With polls showing most Democratic voters eager for a new direction in Washington, Clinton, with her long record in public life, has been forced to battle the perception that Obama would be the more effective change agent.

"We are ready for a new beginning," she told an audience in Council Bluffs. "It all comes down to one question: who is ready and able to make the changes we need on Day One in the White House."

Without mentioning him by name, Clinton also sought to contrast her health care plan with Obama's. Her campaign has criticized the Illinois senator for offering a health coverage proposal that would not require everyone to carry health insurance; Obama has said coverage cannot be mandated until health care costs are substantially reduced.

"Who would I leave out? Who would get to decide?" Clinton asked.

She also made a more explicit appeal to women voters, whom her campaign was counting on to come out in large numbers for the former first lady.

"Countries that deny women their rights are often countries we have problems with, aren't they?" she said. "When I am president I will continue to make changes that are good and right for women and are also smart for national security."