Boston Globe
January 2, 2008
AMES, Iowa - Microphone in hand, Hillary Clinton nods deeply, gravely. At times, she softens her voice to almost a stage whisper, her shoulders hunched with concern. Her turquoise and canary yellow jackets have been put away in favor of more conservative black or forest green.
Racing across Iowa in the final, crucial days before tomorrow's Iowa caucuses, Clinton is pressing a case that is as much a warning of what could go wrong in America - with the wrong leader at the helm - as it is a call to make the country right again.
{snip}
She brought a hush to an audience in western Iowa last week when she spoke about the tragedy and her worries about Pakistani democracy. Then, she segued to the importance of the American elections, setting the scene the next president will face when inaugurated at noon on Jan. 20, 2009.
Piled thick onto the president's desk, she said, would be a war to end in Iraq, a war "to try to come to grips with" in Afghanistan, rogue nations, and "networks of extremists across the globe who do not share our values," an economy that is "tottering," and the legacy of the Bush administration.
{snip}
Sunday night in Carlisle, Bill Clinton began his speech with this joking admonition:
"I don't want you to feel any pressure, but the future of the free world is riding on you. Just chill out, don't worry about it, but we're all there hanging on the thread of your efforts."Then his tone grew serious. "Something will happen that will not be discussed in the Iowa caucus," he said. "They didn't talk about Osama bin Laden in the 2000 campaign, nobody ever mentioned
Katrina - we didn't know she existed . . ."
article: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/02/as_the_caucuses_loom_clinton_strikes_a_serious_tone/