Hillary the decider?
Posted: Sunday, March 02, 2008 12:56 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
WESTERVILLE, OH -- Clinton, who is stumping across Ohio two days before a must-win primary here, continued to drive home her argument that she is better prepared than her rival to deal with crises as president.
"When the cameras are gone and the lights are out, the president of the United States, as I know very well, is in that White House," she today told a group of supporters gathered in a high school gym here. "And, yes, there are advisers. There's all kinds of people who are saying do this and do that. But the president has to decide."
She continued, "When those calls come at 3:00 am, it might be a national security crisis. You know, it could be an economic crisis. You know, the economy's facing some really troubled waters. Think about what could happen if there were unrest in Nigeria, a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, oil would shoot to $150 a barrel."
Clinton needs to win in Ohio to stay in the race, according to many political observers, and she spoke today about the importance of the state, a place where the economy is tops on voters' minds.
"Ohio is once again the center of attention for a reason, because Ohio, as Ted Strickland says everywhere I travel with him, truly does represent America -- the kind of hopes and aspirations, the kind of challenges and opportunities, they're all right here in Ohio," she said. "I can go from one end of this state to another, and I can see the growth and the new jobs in a place like Columbus and then I can see the shuttered steel mills in Youngstown. I can be visiting with laid off workers in Toledo, who are just so worried about what's going to happen next and then I can be down in Cincinnati with financial services and others who are doing the jobs that they hope to attract and keep. It is a picture of America."
The event launched what the campaign is calling a "Solutions for America" caravan of canvassers who aim to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors. It kicked off what it's calling an 88 counties in 88 hours tour on Friday in Ohio to reach out to voters and supporters in every county.
State Director Robby Mook called this a "hotly contested race" and said he wasn't paying much attention to polls, focusing instead on getting out the vote. Mook said absentee and early voting rates had been high, but expressed some concern that bad weather could disproportionately affect the southeastern part of the state, where Clinton has a lot of support.
