Clinton Campaigns In New Hampshire
Questions Focus on Her 2002 Iraq Vote

By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com staff writer
Sunday, February 11, 2007

BERLIN, N.H., Feb. 10 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y) faced tough questions over her 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq during a town hall gathering Saturday in this small mill city tucked away in the far northeastern reaches of the state.

The response to Clinton's visit to New Hampshire, her first since 1996, was typified by Roger Tilton.

Tilton, a financial consultant from Nashua who had risen at 4 a.m. to make the drive north, asked Clinton to apologize for her vote. She refused -- reiterating her stance that "I have taken responsibility for my vote."

Tilton was unmoved. "Until she says it was a mistake, she won't get my vote," he said.

The exchange highlighted the challenge Clinton faces in her still-new candidacy for president. She must convince Democratic primary voters, who tend to be strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, that her pragmatic approach to ending the conflict is the right one.

Complicating that task is that her two main rivals for the Democratic nomination -- Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) -- have spoken out strongly against the war. In his formal announcement of his bid for president Saturday, Obama mentioned his proposal to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.

Despite the pointed questioning on Iraq, Clinton remained the poised front-runner that state and national polls make her out to be. She deftly answered questions on rising college tuition, immigration and the situation in Darfur. On health-care reform, which Clinton unsuccessfully tackled as first lady, she was unbowed about the need to expand coverage.

"I am going to be right back up on that horse of universal health-care coverage, and we are going to ride," she promised.

The crowds that gathered to hear Clinton were considerable. Hundreds packed the Berlin City Hall on a frigid morning for the chance to see and hear her; thousands more lined the wooden bleachers at Concord High School in the state capital later in the day.

For many it was their first in-person exposure to Clinton, and there was considerable curiosity about how she would handle the back-and-forth repartee on which New Hampshire voters pride themselves.

"I'd like to like her," said Nathaniel Gurien of North Conway. "Now that she is running, she has to show us what she's made of."

Much of Clinton's rhetoric was aimed doing just that -- she cast herself as an ordinary woman who has lived an extraordinary life. She described her upbringing in a "middle-class family in the middle of America in the middle of the last century" and asked the audience to help her avoid gaining weight while in the state and stopping too often at Dunkin' Donuts.

She invited two teenagers in the crowd to come to the stage to hand her a sticker supporting New Hampshire's bid to continue holding the first primary in the nation. She shook hands with both, drawing a roar from the crowd.

She headed off questions about whether a woman could be elected president in 2008 before they were even asked. "We'll never know until we try," Clinton said.

On issues, she was vague, choosing to focus on her accomplishments during her six years in the Senate rather than on specific proposals. Asked what she would do to reform the health-care system, Clinton was careful not to lay out a plan and instead turned the question back to the audience. On energy independence, Clinton advocated several modest measures but offered no broad proposal.

But it was Iraq and Clinton's position on the issue that served as the focal point of the day. Even those who were obvious supporters pressed for assurances that she believes the war was a mistake. One woman, who prefaced her remarks by telling Clinton, "You go, girl," asked her to better explain her 2002 vote.

Clinton said her vote did not give President Bush the authority to conduct a "preemptive war," and she cited comments she made to that effect at the time.

"He should not have been trusted with the authority we gave him," she said. Clinton also noted that she has advocated capping the number of troops in Iraq at the January 2007 level and supports proposals to cut off funding for Iraqi security forces if progress is not made in limiting the violence there.

Clinton refused to accept the view that the Senate's effort to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning the president's plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq is a meaningless exercise.

"We are working to change the president's policy," she said. "Getting change in our system is difficult. I'm still in the arena. I'm still fighting."

Not everyone was convinced.

"She's very politically calculating and careful," said Chuck Henderson of North Conway. "I want someone who has courage and is fearless."