Cross-Posted at HillarysBloggers.com
I've said it before and I'll say it again... The more you know about Hillary, the more impressed you’re going to be. To that end, Hillary's working 24/7 to meet as many voters as possible in her historic bid for the white house. Last night I told you about some of the people she met when she went door to door in Manchester New Hampshire, and today she's back in Iowa on her Every County Counts Tour.
Before we get to that though, she’s come out with a new ad regarding her HUGE endorsement by the Des Moines Register. Take a look – I think you’ll be impressed...
Make the jump - there's more...
Earlier today she fired up a union in Des Moines...
DES MOINES — On the second day of a statewide blitz Monday, Hillary Clinton fired up a union audience and said she is tough enough to weather a general election campaign.
"I think you know, whatever they throw at me, I'll give it right back," she said, speaking to hundreds of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
"We are on an adventure together," she said. "This is about changing our country and taking it back and making it all it can be again."
"When it comes to caucusing on Thursday, Jan. 3, just remember three things," said Danny Homan, president of the AFSCME council that covers Iowa, "one, show up for Hillary; two, stand up for Hillary; and three, be counted for Hillary."
snip
During her speech, Clinton told about a 102-year-old man who wants to caucus for her.
"He's asked his 81-year-old son to take him," she said.
This is all part of Hillary's new "Every County Counts Tour", in which she and her surrogates will travel to every one of Iowa's 99 counties over the next few days. Lissa Muscatine, a former speech writer (she wrote Hillary's amzaing speech in Beijing in 1995) and friend of Hillary's, posted a wonderful write-up about this tour on the campaign's web blog.
I especially love the bit about Hillary's boots ;o) Check it out...
Every County Counts! Hitting the Campaign Trail in Iowa With Hillary Clinton
Okay, let's be honest. Hillary's yard signs look much better in the snow than anyone else's. Come to Iowa. You'll know what I mean.
"I've got my duck boots on!"
That's our candidate speaking. And there, peaking beneath the hem of her slacks, are Hillary's heavy duty snow boots, favored footwear for a five-day blitz across the frozen heartland of Iowa. (Fashion writers
of America, where are you?)
First stop of the campaign's 99-county tour: Council Bluffs. A packed crowd at Thomas Jefferson High School. Teachers. Nurses. Retirees. Machinists in orange t-shirts. Kids. They want to know about
education, trade, health care - and toys from China.
Hillary: "The question you have to ask is: 'Who is ready, and able, to make the change we need? Who is ready to be President?"
"You are!" yells a woman in the audience.
Background music: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
It's been a great day and a great day of endorsements. First, the Des Moines Register (Hillary "inspires our confidence. . . . We believe as president she'll do what she's always done in her life: Throw herself
into the job and work hard.") Then former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, who told the Council Bluffs crowd that Hillary is the Democrat most able to win a rough-and-tumble campaign and the best prepared to govern on Day One.
And another endorsement: a 102-year-old man from Grinnell who plans to caucus for Hillary on January 3rd. (You ain't seen nothing yet!).
Hillary: "Some people think change happens because you demand it. Some think you can hope for it. I think change happens because you work hard for it. And that's what I've done all my life."
It also turns out to be a great day for flying around Iowa in a helicopter, er . . . Hil-o-copter. To cover more terrain, Hillary handed off the cozy duck boots to her frozen-footed press staffer, Jamie Smith, and boarded a blue chopper to go to Dunlap and the cattle barn belonging to Jim and Ruth Schaben. Usually they sell cattle in the barn, as the beef charts on the wall attest. "I've been to a lot of cattle barns and a lot of cattle sales in Arkansas," Hillary told the standing-room only crowd. "But I've never been the one who was being bid on."
Background music: "Takin' Care of Business."
I saw a lot of cowboy hats, baseball caps, VFW hats, and also Keith Duncan, the former mayor of Denison, and his wife, Sharon, who I had met for coffee on an earlier trip to Iowa. They're organizing
precincts for Hillary.
I also met Lavon, a Korean War vet who was wearing his VFW hat and a big Hillary for President pin. He told Hillary: "Our troops need help when they come home from the war. Including mental health. Can you
help us with that?"
Hillary talked about her efforts over the past several years to get health care for soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, including those suffering from brain injuries and post traumatic stress disorder. And she mentioned her work in Congress to extend family and medical leave to families of troops wounded or killed in action, as well as her Wounded Warriors initiative.
Takin' Care of Business...
Several generations of Schabens presented Hillary with a souvenir from their barn - a Dunlap Livestock Auction sweatshirt. (It will look great with the duck boots). Then, as the sun set over the plains, Hillary waved goodbye and got back on the blue Hil-o-copter to head to her third county of the day. The logo on the flying bird: "Working for change. Working for you. Hillary Clinton."
You ain't seen nothin' yet.
I'm going to have Bachman Turner Overdrive songs running through my head for the rest of the evening now (ok ok - so I'm dating myself a bit here!). ;o)
As some of you saw in Peter Daou's diary this morning, the campaign's just launched a new website called, The Hillary I Know (Hey look! There's an ad for her new site along the side margin on this page!). I thought I'd go into a little more detail and offer up one or two of the videos here for you guys to check out. Some of them are pretty damn powerful, and as the mother of a child who's benefited greatly from Hillary's dedicated and dogged work on behalf of children with special needs, I can tell you these stories come from the heart. I've never gotten the chance to really get to know Hillary, but there are millions like me who've been helped beyond measure from her amazing work over the past 35 years. I'd make one of these videos for her in a heartbeat. From the campaign today...
Kicking off Day 2 of its "Every County Counts Tour", the CLinton campaign today unveiled a first-of-its-kind website called "The Hillary I Know" which features video testimonials from regular Americans, longtime friends, and well-known leaders, whose lives have all be changed by Hillary.
Hillary Clinton has delivered change in the lives of the people she has met and known for 35 years. From the friends she grew up with, to the people she has knosn, to the Americans she has helped. www.thehillaryiknow.com will show voters a glimpse of the kind of change that Hillary has worked for and achieved.
The videos include testimonials from prominent Americans like General Wesley Clark and Governor Tom Vilsack. But they also include moving stories from people who have known Hillary personally for years, like close childhood friend Betsy Ebeling, Ann Henry, who hosted the Clintons wedding reception; close friend Jim Blair; and Ed Matthews, Hillary's pastor in Arkansas.
And it presents the stories of Hillary’s constituents, like Shannon Mallozzi, a New Yorker whose daughter received care for a brain disease with Hillary’s help; Marvin Bethea, a first responder at Ground Zero whom Hillary helped after 0/11; and Catherine McVay Hughes, a resident of lower Manhattan impaced by the air quality issues that developed at Ground Zero after 9/11.
The videos are powerful and serve as a stark reminder that the issues discussed in campaigns impact real people. They also provide insight into the kid of person Hillary is, and put Hillary’s lifetime of working for change into a context that policy papers simple do not convey. For example, Shannon, the mother whose daughter Hillary helped, recounts in her video that she wasn't just talking to a senator but a fellow mother when she turned to Hillary. She talks about how Hillary worked outside the view of the media, calling her repeatedly, and putting her in touch with people who could help her daughter get the medical treatment she needed.
To promote the website, the campaign will be launching a major blog-ad campaign on a diverse range of blogs today, including several in the early primary and caucus states. The ads will also be accompanied by a comprehensive web push on the campaign's official website and blog, social networking sites and YouTube.
In addition, many of the people featured on www.thehillaryiknow.com will hit the campaign trail for Hillary, some of them even joining Hillary at her stops today, to tell Iowa caucus-goers about the Hillary they know.
The "Hillary I Know" surrogates are part of the five-day "Every County Counts Tour" that will reach all 99 of Iowas counties in an effort to energize the campaigns supporters, strengthen its organization, and make its case to people who have not yet made up their minds about who to support on January 3rd.
So I went and checked out this amazing new website and the first video I looked at was by a young mother – Sharon Mallozzi - with a little girl who was diagnosed with a brain disease with no cure. Imagine first that you’re in her shoes – that your baby is sick.
Now imagine that nobody is doing research to try to find a cure for this disease.
That’s where Hillary comes in to this picture – take a look...
She told Hillary that she’s just one mother – what could she do to help her little girl.
(This is the part that made this mom choke up a bit...)
"She took my hand and she said, 'You are not one mother; I'm a mother too and I want to help you.'"
You guys – this is without the cameras running. No press around. Hillary helped her because she needed help and because Hillary was in a position to give her that help. I’ve heard others here in the DC area who’ve known Hillary for years share stories just like this one. The phone calls to see how they’re doing. The offers of help and the reassurance that someone’s there if they’re needed.
Hillary gets the job done, and people respect her for that. I respect her for that. And I hope you will to.