Some of Clinton's supporters have been unnerved as they watch her fortunes take a turn for the worse. They've expressed discomfort over what they see as a pattern of reinvention: First Clinton was tough and seasoned, then she tried out a softer persona. She announced in Iowa she would start attacking Obama; then she drew back.
After repeatedly touting her experience, she repackaged herself as the candidate best able to bring about change. Don Fowler, a Clinton backer and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the campaign should have moved more quickly to show Clinton's warmer side. "That should have been a concern from the beginning, and I don't think it was," Fowler said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 39 words Type of Material: Correction
Clinton's campaign: An article in Monday's Section A about changes that Hillary Rodham Clinton is making amid a tight Democratic presidential race said the campaign had repaid a $5-million loan from the candidate. The loan has not been repaid.
Others say the campaign has not been creative in its fundraising. Though $10 million has been raised since Feb. 1 through a burst of online donations, the campaign's overall Internet fundraising has lagged, a top Clinton fundraiser said Sunday.
That is a problem because many of the reliable Clinton donors have already given the maximum under federal law, he said. Donations from the Internet tend to come from a larger number of donors, many of them new, giving smaller amounts -- which means they can be asked again to donate.
Obama "raised a whole lot more money in January than we did through a nontraditional source: the Internet," the fundraiser said. "A number of us are not entirely pleased with the efforts on the Internet. Quite frankly, that's where it [the money] is going to have to come from."
Buoyed by his victories, Obama on Sunday sounded every bit the Democratic front-runner. He and Clinton have netted about the same number of delegates. If he gets more victories Tuesday, Obama could potentially eke out a lead in the delegate hunt, something that seemed unthinkable a few months back, when he was trailing far behind Clinton in national polls.
Campaigning in Alexandria, Va., Obama painted Clinton as a figure from the past while laying out a governing strategy should he win the White House.
He said it was difficult for Clinton "to break out of the politics of the past 15 years." He pledged to form a "working majority" with independents and Republicans to win the White House and break partisan gridlock in Washington.
Clinton, campaigning in Manassas, Va., did not acknowledge the recent spate of election losses. She said that if elected she, like Harry S. Truman, could handle the pressures that the next occupant of the Oval Office would inherit.
"I had a historian tell me the other day that it's probably not been since Harry Truman that we had a president who inherits two wars, an economy in trouble, millions of people losing their healthcare, millions of families on the brink of losing their homes," she said.
Calling the presidency "the hardest job in the world," Clinton says she is best suited to confront Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee, because of her experience in foreign policy. "Republicans will do everything in their power to make this election about national security and homeland security," she said.
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peter.nicholas@latimes.com
Times staff writers Stuart Silverstein in Los Angeles and Johanna Neuman in Washington contributed to this report.
