Efforts to get back on the campaign trail took unusual turns and dead stops Wednesday as weather stymied Hillary Clinton’s Iowa kick-off tour with husband Bill Clinton, and Mike Huckabee started the day by bagging a pheasant.

As she waited to launch her “Big Challenges, Real Solutions — Time to Pick a President” tour, Clinton instead offered a blog entry to Glamour magazine that discussed the progress women have made since she was a college student in the 1960s. She said that progress had enabled her to have a shot at the presidency today.

“This campaign is about making history. But I am not running for president because I am a woman, I am running because I want to be the president who will prioritize the policies that matter most to women, who will stand up and fight, who knows the power of a woman’s voice. Change is just a word if you don’t have the strength and experience to make it happen. I believe I do and I believe together we can make it,” she wrote in the blog reportedly penned by Clinton personally.

Click here to read Clinton’s Glamour magazine blog entry.

Clinton later took to the stump with her supporters in Iowa, after air traffic congestion in New York delayed her appearances.

Also on Wednesday, Clinton was named the most admired woman in the world for the sixth year in a row in the USA Today/Gallup Poll’s annual survey, with her husband taking second place in the men’s category behind President Bush.  

Clinton is in a statistical tie with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.  Though the match-up between Obama and Clinton has been pitched as the choice between change and experience, respectively, the candidates have tried to embrace both attributes in the early test states.

In a press release Wednesday, Clinton’s campaign cited the “war abroad and a troubled economy at home” as reasons to pick the New York senator for president. She described herself as “tested, ready to lead.”

But claims of experience have raised some eyebrows, even by The New York Times, which questioned in Wednesday’s editions whether Clinton’s time as first lady should count toward her resume.

“I covered the Clinton administration,” said Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner and a FOX News contributor. ”I traveled all over the country and all over the world with President Clinton and it didn’t seem to me or the other members of the White House press corps that she was essentially a co-president. It seemed like to me that after her initial foray into policy that is the health care debacle that she retreated to a more traditional role as first lady, maybe a little bit more involved than other first ladies but certainly not a co-president. And if she was a co-president, I don’t why we didn’t hear more about it at the time.”

Democratic strategist Kelly Bingel said Clinton’s travels to 79 countries as first lady count for something.

“She has much more foreign policy experience than any of the Republicans,” Bingel said. “The stakes are too high with two wars going on for us to have any candidate who doesn’t claim foreign policy experience.

As Clinton promotes the countdown, Obama is calling on voters to stand up. His latest campaign swing is named the “Stand for Change” tour. Unexpectedly, two black ministers in South Carolina did just that, calling on Obama’s campaign to remove them from a list of preachers who had endorsed the candidate.

“I really haven’t decided to endorse him yet. I was thinking about it,” said the Rev. Clifford Gaymon of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in rural Clarendon County.

An Obama spokeswoman said the list was created after campaign organizers called ministers and asked to release their names publicly.

“We used all our resources to ensure we had the most accurate and up-to-date list, and we worked to check with everyone on the list,” said South Carolina spokeswoman Amaya Smith. “It’s a pretty long list of people.”

The incident didn’t dampen Obama’s spirits as he campaigned at a Hy-Vee grocery store. Obama said his food shopping trip was the first he’s made since he entered the campaign some 10 months ago. He picked up some fruit and two packs of Christmas cookies that he passed out to his traveling press corps and two young boys he met in the produce department.

“Notice I didn’t even ask you if you were caucusing for me before,” Obama said to one boy riding in a shopping cart who eagerly accepted the treat without saying a word.

In a brief exchange with reporters, Obama said he was intent on convincing Iowa voters in the final days of the state’s long campaign of how close they are to changing the nation.

“We’re now in the last week of the campaign so we want to make a strong closing argument,” he said. He added that while he hadn’t been to the grocery store, he did manage to buy a necklace for his wife, Michelle, for Christmas.

“We agreed that we weren’t going to give each other gifts, but I never believe she really means it,” Obama said. “The point is no matter what she says, you don’t want to show up empty-handed.”

Over on the eastern side of the country, Edwards shifted focus toward New Hampshire, returning for a day of door-knocking and town hall events in what his campaign said was his 23rd trip to the state.

Appearing in Conway, N.H., as part of a 300-mile, one-day tour before heading back to Iowa, Edwards promised to fight the establishment and change Washington if elected president. He focused on populist themes and bemoaned corporate power and the influence of lobbyists.

“You’d better choose someone as your candidate who’s ready for this battle. Nice words will not change anything,” Edwards said. “I’m not talking about fighting with politicians.”

He cited his small-town, Southern roots as an asset and compared himself to previous Democratic presidents.

“The last two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter,” Edwards said in his Carolina twang, “both talk like me.”

In New Hampshire, Edwards’ campaign launched a new ad that discusses how he will positively use the “enormous power” that comes with the presidency. And the campaign opened five new field offices there to accommodate the flood of volunteers the campaign hopes will flock to Edwards in the final days before the primary.

Back In Iowa, he issued a different ad that features his wife Elizabeth. The ad, called 30 Years,” has Elizabeth Edwards saying how blessed she has been “for the last 30 years to be married to the most optimistic person that I have ever met.  But at the same time he has an unbelievable toughness — particularly about other people and that is his ability to fight for them.” The ad coincides with the launch of Edwards’ “America Rising: Fighting for the Middle Class” tour that will end with the Iowa caucuses.

Clinton too released a new 30-second television ad to air in Iowa and New Hampshire starting Thursday. The ad, entitled “Stakes,” makes the case for why Clinton would be the best president to confront the challenges America is facing at home and abroad.

Click here to see the Clinton ad.

The Republican Trail

Democrats aren’t the only ones trying to enhance their images in the walk-up to the primaries and caucuses. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee went hunting and offered Iowa voters the image of an experienced outdoorsman, shotgun blasting and dogs braying.

The move was clearly a political gambit, and Huckabee made no bones about it. 

“Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors,” Huckabee said. “It’s not something we had to go out and get a primer in. It’s very much ordinary to me.”

The former Arkansas governor said back home he would be duck hunting on the day after Christmas, but pheasant hunting in Iowa — eight days before the state’s leadoff nominating caucuses — was a good substitute. He also offered a lecture declaring that hunting is good for wildlife.

“The truth is hunters are the ones who preserve the species,” he said, since hunters have an interest in preserving wildlife and their license fees pay for conservation efforts. “In many cases extinction comes from not having some level of hunting. It’s the hunters who actually keep the wildlife alive. A lot of people think that when you hunt you’re destroying the wildlife.”

Huckabee led a motorcade of photographers along gravel roads in hilly rural Iowa, hopping out of a pickup truck to take to a snow-covered field wearing his bright orange vest along with Dude, an energetic hunting dog. Huckabee and three hunting companions tramped slowly across the field and their shotguns were blasting within minutes.

In Iowa it’s a toss-up between Huckabee and Mitt Romney, with the former Massachusetts governor and much of the GOP establishment warning that the former Arkansas governor is too moderate on illegal immigration, crime, taxes and spending.

But Romney too is facing a backlash on the trail from media outlets and campaign rivals. In New Hampshire, where he is in a virtual tie with John McCain, Romney earned derision from the Manchester Union Leader, which has endorsed McCain.

The newspaper slammed Romney on Wednesday, saying his attempts to explain misstatements on associations between his father and Martin Luther King Jr.,  his discussion of his own hunting record and his flip flops on social issues make him untrustworthy.

In the savage article, the paper’s editors say Romney’s attempts to explain his past decisions have only made things worse.  Romney responded Wednesday afternoon in Henniker, N.H., by contesting the Leader’s arguments and highlighting his recent endorsement by conservative magazine National Review as well as those by New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg and conservative retired Judge Robert Bork.

“I’m pleased with the endorsements I’ve had … But of course I can’t get all of the endorsements. I’m going to try and get all I can. But ultimately the endorsement I really care about is the endorsement of the voters of New Hampshire,” Romney said.

He also defended the consistency of his positions while in office, saying, “If you look at my record as governor you can see my positions are the positions I carried out as governor. There was no change.”

Romney continued to contrast his positions with the Leader’s chosen candidate, McCain, slamming his sponsorship of an illegal immigration bill and his opposition to the Bush tax cuts.

“Under his bill that he fought for, everybody who came here illegally could stay forever, and does he still believe that, or does he not believe that?” Romney asked. “And likewise on taxation, he says … he’s for making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Well, does he admit that he was wrong in voting against them before?”

Romney also addressed what he called personal attacks by the McCain campaign. He wouldn’t say exactly what attack he meant, but was likely referring to an e-mail sent Sunday by McCain adviser Mark Salter.

In it, Salter lashed out at Romney for hitting on McCain’s position on the Bush tax cuts.
“Welcome to Mitt Romney’s bizarro world, in which everyone is guilty of his sins. He didn’t support Ronald Reagan. He didn’t support President Bush’s tax cuts. He raised taxes in Massachusetts by $700 million. He knows John McCain is gaining on him so he does what any small varmint gun totin,’ civil rights marching, NRA endorsed fantasy candidate would do: he questions someone else’s credibility. New Hampshire is on to you, Mitt. Give it a rest.”

Romney said Wednesday it is okay to contrast, but not to engage in attacks on a “personal basis.”

“Well, I think it’s totally appropriate and part of the political process to compare and contrast positions on issues.  I think it’s a different step if a candidate begins to attack a person on a personal basis.  Senator McCain here, for instance, in New Hampshire, attacked me on a personal basis in a mailing he sent out. That’s in my view different than just talking about differences on issues.”

He acknowledged that his own campaign may try different types of advertising in the future, a seeming recognition that personal attacks work.  So far, however, Romney describes his “Closing Argument” ads to the people of New Hampshire and Iowa as “all positive and  forward looking.”

“At this stage I haven’t responded on a personal basis but I’m not making any guarantees.  I haven’t decided what we’re doing down the road,” he said.

McCain, who embarked on a three-day tour of rallies and meet-and-greets through the Hawkeye State Wednesday said Romney’s comments were a sign of desperation with eight days left until voting begins.

“I know something about tailspins, and it’s pretty clear Mitt Romney is in one. It’s disappointing that he would launch desperate, flailing and false attacks in an attempt to maintain relevance. As the Union Leader said today, New Hampshire voters just aren’t buying his act, and these latest attacks won’t help him,” he said.

Outside ad buys are also trying to shape the Republican race. American Right to Life Action — a 527 non-profit group formed after a meeting of 30 pro-life organizations in Denver last month — is adding television buys in Iowa and may expand to New Hampshire and South Carolina to attack Romney’s position on abortion rights.

The ad says Romney has gone from supporting abortion rights to opposing them to supporting them and back again depending on where in the country he is and what position he’s seeking.

“Mitt Romney, willing to sacrifice children, lying for your vote,” the narrator says in the ad.

But American Right to Life Action is also none too happy with the National Right to Life’s endorsement of Fred Thompson. ARTLA’s president Steve Curtis told FOX News that when his group’s members made a show of hands in Denver during a meeting last month, Thompson received not a single vote. Curtis said Thompson’s work on behalf of Planned Parenthood excluded him from consideration by serious abortion opponents.

Thompson too was on his way back to Iowa on Wednesday night to launch “The Clear Conservative Choice: Hands Down” bus tour that will run through the Iowa caucuses. Thompson also was bringing back a virtual version of the red pickup truck he made famous during his Senate run in Tennessee. Thompson said he is trying to raise nearly $250,000 by 6 p.m. on Friday to run an ad statewide through the Iowa caucuses.  The donations were being tracked by filling up the virtual truck.

Unlike other candidates, Rudy Giuliani spent his day in Florida on Wednesday. Giuliani has pursued a national approach to the campaign, staying relatively low-key in Iowa and New Hampshire while keeping a full press on Florida and focusing on the 19 states that hold Republican primaries Feb. 5. 

Speaking in Largo, Giuliani said that “there is no one win that’s essential,” but underscored the value of courting Florida, as he has. The state holds its primary Jan. 29.

“This will be a very important primary. It’s obvious that this is also a very big state, it’s a state that’s very diverse,” he said. “You win in Florida, it says something about your ability to win a general election. All of the primaries are important, though. But this is a particularly important one.”

Giuliani plans to campaign in the Sunshine State through Friday morning, and then head to Iowa and New Hampshire over the weekend.

Jane Fleming, executive director of Young Democrats of America, said while the countdown to Iowa is on, no one can be sure who’s going to win.

“Iowa is very different this time around. There are constituency groups that candidates are going after like no other time before,” Fleming said. “Young people, women, hunters as we saw Huckabee going after today. Those folks are going to matter in this election. It’s very different this time around.”

FOX News’ Carl Cameron, Corbett Riner, Mosheh Oinounou, Shushannah Walshe and Judd Berger and The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Florida, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Iowa, John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.