Clinton stresses record in final campaign push

CLINTON, Iowa – In the same Iowa city where her two main rivals for the Democratic caucuses offered populist challenges to corporate America, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Saturday made her final appeal for votes on the basis of her legislative record and ability to work with or stand up to Republicans.

{mosads}Clinton, who polls show is in a virtual dead-heat with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), told more than 300 Iowans gathered in the local high school that she would love to be able to tell them, “elect me and all your problems will be solved.”

“But I guess I’ve read too much history, I’ve read the Bible … to know that that’s not the way things happen,” Clinton said.

She urged voters to look at each candidate’s record and experience, rather than simply the speeches they hear on the campaign trail.

Clinton reiterated her support for universal health care and additional funding for cancer research, and said she took the lead on encouraging additional support for breast cancer research as first lady.

She also noted her international experience. Claiming to have been “deeply involved” in brokering a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, Clinton said she traveled there more than President Clinton during his administration. She also noted her famous speech in Beijing in which she proclaimed that “women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights,” and her relationship with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose assassination two days ago has brought renewed focus on America’s place in the world.

“I’m not asking you to take me on faith. I’m not asking you to take a leap of faith,” she said.

Clinton also said her experience would be invaluable in another way: voters can be sure she can stand up to  “whatever Republicans plan to do.” A frequent target of the right, Clinton said she has “been through the fires and been made stronger, much to the dismay of the Republicans.”

On Friday, Edwards and Obama held nearly simultaneous rallies in this city, which lies on the Mississippi River and was named coincidentally for DeWitt Clinton, a pre-Civil War governor of New York.

Steps from where Clinton spoke Saturday, Edwards told around 150 Iowans in the high school library Friday that he would wage an epic battle against corporate greed.

Speaking at a middle school only blocks away, Obama on Friday challenged corporations that were taking their jobs overseas.

The candidates have all headed into the home stretch with bus tours through eastern Iowa, visiting cities like Dubuque, Davenport, Muscatine and Clinton, hoping to win a few remaining converts in counties that have tended to be Democratic strongholds in recent presidential elections.