Clinton: 'I offer change and experience'
Hillary Clinton urged first-time voters today to choose someone “who actually cares” and who would offer both change and experience in their leadership of America, hours before Super Tuesday.
The former First Lady appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman as she battled with Barack Obama for crucial delegates and campaign momentum.
Mrs Clinton said voters were not faced with a choice between change and experience as they decided between the 46-year-old Illinois senator and herself.
“If it’s not both, you’re missing out,” she said.
After the busiest day in primary history, Mrs Clinton’s voice was raspy and she struggled to control her coughing at one stop during the day.
However, the New York senator said this was due to Sunday night’s Superbowl victory for the New York Giants over the New England Patriots.
“Every New Yorker has a sore throat after last night,” she said.
Referring to the Giants’ winning touchdown in the final seconds of the game, she said: “I took a lot of heart from that, Dave – you know, it’s the fourth quarter before Super Tuesday and you’ve got to keep going, you can’t give up.”
Asked about how tiring running a campaign was, Mrs Clinton, 60, referred to those candidates who had dropped out of the race so far.
“I talked to one of them, who shall remain nameless, and he said he hadn’t realised how tired he was until he stopped,” she said.
“You know what it’s like when you’re running on adrenalin and you just keep going. It’s both exhausting and exhilarating.
“I get into a plane, or into a car, and try to catch some sleep because I’m not getting much of it. But then, you know, you end up like I did today… There’s a huge crowd and they’re so excited and it’s like there’s an energy transfusion.
“Then when it’s over you get back in the car, you get back in the plane and you try to get some more sleep.
“It’s that kind of cycle and you just keep going.”
Wearing a red jacket and black trousers, the former First Lady said the right mixture of the issues, perception and personality were important when voters were deciding who to support.
“Right now, the economy is really a hot issue,” she said.
“That really does get focus. But when there’s not something that’s really dominating the news, then people lean back and think, ’OK, would I want to have a beer with this person?’.”
She went on: “You want to feel that the person you’re voting for actually cares about you, actually wants to help you.
“They might actually get up in the morning and thinks, ’Gosh, you know, what am I going to do to get somebody a job, or get healthcare for somebody.’
“And that’s the kind of heartfelt connection that I see in people as I go around. But you also want somebody who can navigate the system and make the changes that we all are hoping for.”
She also tried to make it clear that she could control her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who has been criticised for some of the remarks he has made during election rallies.
“In my White House, we will know who wears the pant suits,” she said.
Asked about her campaign finances, Mrs Clinton said she had raised more than $100m (€67.7m) to date and added: “It hurts.”
“It’s not a good way to run campaigns.
“That’s why we should go to public financing. Everybody should be able to operate on a level playing field.”
The televised interview came at the end of a busy day on the campaign trail.
On yesterday’s first stop of the day, Mrs Clinton appeared to cry for the second time in this campaign in the run-up to a significant election.
Penn Rhodeen, a lawyer who introduced her to a crowd at the Yale Child Study Centre in New Haven, where they both worked in the early 1970s, appeared to cry as he recalled her purple bell-bottomed trousers and his pride at what she had gone on to achieve.
Mrs Clinton appeared to wipe her left eye before saying: “Well, I said I would not tear up. Already we’re not exactly on the path.”
The former First Lady’s teary moment before her victory in the New Hampshire primary last month was widely seen as a turning moment in her campaign.
Later, she turned talk-show host and broadcast a town hall meeting from New York on the Hallmark Channel in the Super Tuesday states.
With Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea on camera in other locations, she took questions from voters from across America, including Fargo, North Dakota, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Then she went from host to guest as she appeared on Letterman’s late-night talk show.
The run-up to Super Tuesday has also seen unprecedented amounts of money being spent on television advertising.
Records showed Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama each spent $1.3m (€880,000) last Wednesday and have been increasing their purchases in the days since.
