By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 2, 2007; 1:22 PM
Democrats, fired up by their recent midterm election victories, today launched a campaign to win the White House in 2008.One after another, Democratic presidential candidates paraded into the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in Washington and, in seven-minute windows, gave snapshots of their stump speeches.
In perhaps her most aggressive speech since announcing she is running for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) repeated her mantra that she is "in to win" -- and declared that victory in the presidential campaign was a top priority.
"I know a thing or two about winning campaigns," Clinton said to an applauding crowd. "When our party, or our candidates, are attacked, we have got to stand up and fight back. I have always done that and I always will. I know how they think, how they act, and how to defeat them. And if you give me the chance that is exactly what we will do together in 2008."
Clinton, widely seen as the national front-runner but in a close race in early-voting states, followed a speech by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who delivered a serious set of remarks that at times brought the hall to a hushed silence.
"We've been told that consensus on any issue is no longer possible, that we should settle for tinkering around the edges, year after year after year," Obama said. "And along the way, we've lost faith in the political process. We don't really think that we can transform this country. But the times we live in are too serious to let the cynics win this time."
Cynicism, he said, has "caused our politics to become smaller and timid, calculating and cautious."
"We spend all our time thinking about tactics and maneuvers, knowing that if we spoke the truth, addressed the issues with boldness, that we might be labeled -- it might lead to our defeat," Obama said.
Obama, who will make his formal presidential campaign announcement next week, appeared unadorned with campaign signs or pamphlets of the kind even some of the lesser-known candidates were passing out. But he was met with a crush of supporters as he left the hall.
The morning was kicked off by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, who demanded that Democrats, who now control Congress, do more than pass a non-binding resolution on Iraq that is soon to be up for debate.
"Frankly, I am disappointed that we can't find a way to do more than send a meaningless message to the White House--a White House, I would add, that has said it will ignore anything that we have to say about the war in Iraq," Dodd said. "The American people sent us a message this past November; the voters were clear. They want a change in the policy in Iraq."
