Clinton: Decision Between Experience and 'Pizzazz'

Jan.7, 2008 — -- In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Sen. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in New Hampshire, suggested Democratic voters have a choice between herself, a candidate with experience, and Sen. Barack Obama, a candidate with pizzazz.

"Obviously [voters] are trying to evaluate, do we go with something totally new, do we go with something that is familiar, something that is reliable but not as new?" Clinton told ABC News in a rare, exclusive interview in New Hampshire.

For more on ABC News' Kate Snow's exclusive, on-the-trail interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton, watch World News tonight

The New York senator is fighting for her political life in the Granite State, after a disappointing third-place finish in the Iowa caucus. Likening the choice facing voters to the choice she faced when her husband needed heart surgery, Clinton said she chose someone with experience over pizzazz.

'Experience vs. Pizzazz'

"I would ask people ... think about having someone who is very precious to you who needs heart surgery. I went through that with Bill. We went with the most experienced heart surgeon we could find," Clinton said.

"Now there were some new people who were building their reputations who had a lot of pizzazz. But we went for somebody on their team who really had a track record," she said.

The senator attempted to squash the notion that Obama was the "change" candidate.

"I think that at the end of the day, I bring both change and experience," she said."By the very virtue of running for president as a woman I am a change agent. And then I can look back 35 years and point to so many examples where I've made change that has helped people."

Clinton tried to reconcile her argument that she is the "change" candidate with her frequent assertion that she is the candidate "ready to lead" on the first day of the presidency.

"The case that I am making is if you really want change, having someone with experience making change is really the best guarantee you'll get the change we want," she said.

"We have so many problems, and I think my combination of experience on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue will give a built-in advantage to be able to tackle those problems on day one.

Beer, Bush and Barack

Echoing a line she recently began using in her stump speech on the campaign trail, Clinton compared Obama's likability to President Bush's.

"A lot of people voted for George Bush in 2000 because he made a lot of promises and presented himself a certain way. He was the guy that everybody wanted to have a beer with," she said. "But at the end of the day, did that work out very well for America?"

Highlighting the tension between the two leading Democratic candidates, the issue of Clinton's likability surfaced during the ABC News Democratic debate Saturday night. When asked about a poll that suggested Iowans said they found Obama more likable than Clinton, she joked. "That hurts my feelings."

Obama said, "You're likable enough, Hillary."

During an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer Monday, Obama said the response wasn't intended to be snarky.

"I think folks are parsing things too much there. What I should have said, the way I suppose I should have phrased it is 'I think you are plenty likeable.' I was trying to make a gesture of graciousness that apparently has somehow been perceived differently," Obama said.

For more on Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Obama on his campaign bus, click HERE.

Clinton has been hitting her rivals hard over their argument that they represent change.

In a speech to a crowd of hundreds at Nashua North High School in Nashua Sunday, the senator rattled off a series of charges, rapid fire.

"You know, if you give a speech saying you're going to vote against the Patriot Act, and you don't, that's not change," she began, referring to a speech Obama once gave.

"If you say that you're going to prevent members of Congress from having lunch with lobbyists sitting down, but they can still have lunch standing up, that's not change."

Targeting former Sen. John Edwards, Clinton charged: "If you say that you passed the Patients' Bill of Rights but you forget to add it never got signed into law, that's not change," she said, referring to a claim Edwards made during the ABC News debate Saturday night.

Earlier in the day, Clinton became emotional and had tears in her eyes as she spoke with voters about her passion for the country.

Gets Emotional

The senator from New York was sitting at a big table in Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth, with 16 undecided voters, mostly women, warmly and calmly taking questions from the voters.

Then she took an unexpected question from a woman in the group.

"My question is very personal. How do you do it?" asked Marianne Pernold Young, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth. "How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?"

Clinton responded jokingly: "You know, I think, well luckily, on special days I do have help. If you see me every day, and if you look on some of the Web sites and listen to some of the commentators, they always find me on the day I didn't have help. It's not easy."

Then Clinton began getting emotional: "It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know I have so many opportunities from this country ... just don't want to see us fall backward," she said.

Then, with her voice breaking and tears in her eyes, she said, "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it."

Watch the video HERE.

"Some people think elections are a game, lot's of who's up or who's down, [but] it's about our country. It's about our kids' futures, and it's really about all of us together," she said.

"You know, some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds, and we do it, each one of us because we care about our country but some of us are right and some of us are wrong, some of us are ready and some of us are not, some of us know what we will do on day one and some of us haven't thought that through enough," she said in a veiled reference to her Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections American has ever faced," Clinton said.

After the event, Pernold Young told ABC News that she was glad Clinton showed emotion.

"That was real," Pernold Young said.

Another woman in the group, Alison Hamilton of Portsmouth said she, like most of the people in the group, had been leaning toward voting for Obama.

But after seeing Clinton become emotional, she said she was going to back Clinton.

"That was the clincher," Hamilton said.