Clinton to Her Critics: 'They Can Say Whatever They Want'

Dec. 19, 2007— -- It was foggy in Iowa this morning. So foggy that a bus filled with members of the press and a handful of Clinton campaign workers arrived at a Hillary event in Independence, Iowa well before the candidate herself. She had intended to arrive by helicopter.

On Sunday, the same fog forced Clinton's chartered chopper to an early landing in a field outside another small Iowa town. So this morning, it was back to the old-fashioned way – car.

As the campaign enters the home stretch before the Iowa caucuses, in a blitz they call "Every County Counts Tour," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, said that she's feeling "tremendous energy and a lot of momentum."

And it may be late in coming with only two weeks until Iowans vote, but this tour is an attempt to let people see the candidate in a more human way. It might as well be called the "Likability Tour."

A new Web site that went up this week as part of the push in Iowa is called "The Hillary I Know," and Clinton said she was initially reluctant to ask friends to participate.

"I just feel like I don't want to go around bragging about myself, sort of saying, 'oh, I helped to get health care for 6 million children, or I helped to reform the education system in Arkansas,'" she said. "I'd rather just let that speak for itself, but in a presidential campaign, you don't have the luxury of that, which I have finally had to come to grips with."

Clinton said that it has always been hard for her to talk about herself and her personal life.

"I'm a more reserved person, and I really have always thought that you should be judged by your deeds, not your words….But, obviously, in today's political environment, there is a legitimate interest in finding out, well, what motivates the person? So I've talked more about why I got interested in focusing on children's issues, because of my mother's difficult life. And I've talked a lot about why health care and all these other concerns are ones that I just live and breathe."

Clinton is often asked about the "likeability factor," and she acknowledges that there are some people who simply don't like her, but says that "I'm just going to keep getting up every day and telling my story and talking about what I want to do, because we don't need a president who doesn't live up to what we hope. We can't have false hopes again. We've got to have a president who really delivers results."