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Rivals switch roles in Iowa
In a reversal of fortune, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is barnstorming Iowa with a front-runner's swagger while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., scrambles like a whipped cornered an underdog. In ways big and small over the weekend, the two campaigns exuded a sense of switched identities — a dynamic driven by poll-driven perceptions that Clinton's sense of inevitability is slipping and Obama is riding a bit of a wave amid the Midwestern seas of grain.

The mood and stump styles of the two campaigns reflect this new reality: An ebullient
Obama — coatless, tieless, tireless — conveys a sense that at least he thinks he could be on his way to being the next president. Clinton, mixing her traditional caution with a new toughness, is clearly set on knocking Obama off his game.
Obama — coatless, tieless, tireless — conveys a sense that at least he thinks he could be on his way to being the next president. Clinton, mixing her traditional caution with a new toughness, is clearly set on knocking Obama off his game.

Clinton, like all the Democratic contenders, is now devoting the bulk of her time to Iowa. Either she or former President Bill Clinton plans to be in the state nearly every day through the Jan. 3 caucuses, with a break for Christmas.

In another acknowledgment of the tight race, Clinton has abandoned any pretense of remaining above the fray and has engaged Obama nearly every day along the campaign trail. "There is a big difference with Sen. Obama's health care plan: I have a health care plan that covers every single American," she said on an Iowa campaign swing during the weekend. "He, by his own admission, leaves out at least 15 million Americans. … So I am going to draw issue distinctions, then when we finally choose a nominee, which I expect to be, we will close ranks, run against the Republicans and win."
Posted by: Fred 2007-11-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=209650