Clinton Sees Lessons in Past Failure

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., smiles as supporters as she waits to speak about her health care policy, Monday, Sept. 17, 2007, at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Charlie Neibergall - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen years after presiding over the biggest policy debacle of her husband's presidency, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday her experience with failure makes her the one who can succeed in providing universal health coverage.

"If you don't learn from your mistakes, you stop growing," Clinton said in an interview with The Associated Press, insisting that voters should trust her leadership on health care and other issues as she seeks a return to the White House in her own right.

The former first lady told the AP that her seven years in the Senate had taught her valuable lessons about the need for negotiation and compromise.

"I think I know what to do and what not to do," Clinton said.

Clinton touched on several issues in a 20-minute interview with the AP, but health care was the dominant topic.

The New York Democrat unveiled her health care plan Monday in Iowa, promising to bring coverage to all by building on the current employer-based system and using tax credits to make insurance more affordable. The centerpiece of her plan is a so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance the way most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance.

Clinton's pragmatism about negotiating on health care and other issues has drawn considerable criticism from rival Democrat John Edwards. The 2004 vice presidential nominee has tried to paint Clinton as a tool of special interests in Washington and has panned her apparent willingness to allow political adversaries to have a role in crafting the health care overhaul.

Clinton rejected that criticism.

"I wish it were possible just to wave a magic wand and to say from the White House, 'Here's what I want.' But that's not the way it works," she told the AP. "You either convince the opposition to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem or you defeat them in the political process. That's how it works."

In the interview, Clinton refused to criticize a newspaper ad run by the liberal group MoveOn.org referring to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, as "Gen. Betray-Us." The ad has drawn widespread scorn from Republicans, and GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani's campaign put up a Web ad criticizing Clinton for not repudiating MoveOn.

Clinton was asked why her rivals' wives had been taking shots at her when the candidates themselves seemed less comfortable doing so. "I'll leave it to the others to decide how to run their campaigns," she said, laughing.

Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, recently told an interviewer she rejected the notion that "it's Hillary's turn" to be president. And Elizabeth Edwards has suggested the former first lady is too polarizing to be elected and that her husband, John Edwards, would be a more effective champion for women's issues than Clinton would be.