Clinton and Obama: A Study in Contrasts

WATERLOO, Iowa, Feb. 11, 2007 — -- For two left-of-center Democratic senators with roots in Illinois and similar policy goals, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York are offering Democratic voters markedly different campaigns.

There are those immediately obvious differences. Obama is new and relatively unknown; Clinton has been in national life since 1991 and is battle-scarred. Obama is running something of an insurgent's campaign, while Clinton has the dominant Democratic political machine working for her. Obama would be the first black president, Clinton the first woman. Obama is a tabula rasa, Clinton one of the more loved and hated figures in politics today.

But perhaps the most marked contrast can be seen in how the two are presenting themselves to voters. Obama is running almost a general election campaign, seeming more centrist than his views and record would suggest, incessantly talking about healing and uniting the nation. Clinton is clearly running to the left, harshing on a war she voted for to appeal to antiwar liberals, offering herself as a strong Democrat who knows how to deal with Republican attacks.

Put another way, Obama seems trying to win an electoral victory of all 50 states, while Clinton would be happy holding onto the states Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., won in 2004 while picking up just one extra to get her into the White House.

Obama's message this weekend, as he kicked off his campaign in Springfield, Ill., has been an immodest, audaciously Lincoln-esque appeal to unite these United States.

"That is our unyielding faith," he said to freezing crowds outside the Old Historic State Capital, "that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it."

He then flew to the key early-caucus state Iowa to introduce himself to voters.

"One of my strengths, I think, as a leader is that there are a lot of different pieces of America in me," Obama told a town hall meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, discussing his multi-racial roots.. "When I was a teenager, that caused me some problems because you feel like you're being torn in all different directions -- white, black. I was living in Hawaii so there was a strong Asian influence there. Sometimes you didn't know where you would fit in."