Advertisement
You are here: Sun HomeCollectionsClinton

Acumen, emotion

`It's not easy,' Clinton says of campaign rigors

Election 2008 New Hampshire Primary

January 08, 2008|By David Nitkin , Sun reporter

"When you ask what legislative accomplishments you look to, and you say preventing members of Congress from having lunch with lobbyists, except they can still do [it] standing up, that is not change," Clinton told the Dover audience. "When you condemn the oil companies for all of the giveaways that the tax system gives them because of their powerful hold on so many in Washington, and then you vote for Dick Cheney's energy bill, that is not change."

One group that Clinton must sway to win here are independent voters, who make up more than 40 percent of the electorate and who can vote in either party's primary. A surge of independents for Obama would spell certain defeat for her.

Ellie Sexton, 60, an electronics company administrator from Durham who supports Clinton, fears that is what will happen today. But the driving force, she said, will be the state Republican Party, which views Obama as an easier foe in the general election.

Advertisement

"I think there's a manipulation of the system in New Hampshire," she said. "I've heard it. I feel it. ... It breaks my heart."

david.nitkin@baltsun.com

What today's vote means

For Republicans: Balloting in a state known for independent-minded voters could complete the resurrection of John McCain's bid for the nomination and severely cripple his chief rival, Mitt Romney, the ex-governor of Massachusetts.

For Democrats: With Barack Obama surging in the latest polls, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are trying to survive for a one-on-one contest with the Illinois senator.

Baltimore Sun Articles
|