Running for the economic empathizer in chief
COLUMBIA, S.C. — She has been railing about the price of gasoline, wondering how working mothers pay doctors' bills, and generally echoing complaints of everyday folks: How can you afford to put kids through college? What about paying that inflated adjustable-rate home loan? Or holding onto a job in a teetering economy?
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made her final push Friday across South Carolina in advance of today's Democratic presidential primary, channeling the central imperative of her husband's first run for president: a focus, "like a laser beam," on the economy.
Not ceding any ground on an issue that has moved front and center in recent days with the tailspin of world economic markets, Clinton's rivals -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards -- also focused intently on the pocketbook concerns of South Carolinians.
With the flailing economy in headlines daily, the theme promises to remain central as the candidates turn from South Carolina to the more than 20 states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5. Underlining the rapid expansion of the contest, Obama's camp launched a Spanish-language television ad in California, and Edwards planned to visit three Southern and border states leading into "Tsunami Tuesday."
Though the candidates quibbled Friday over their stimulus packages and longer-term prosperity plans, what mainly divided them was the issue of who was most likely to effect economic change.
Clinton laid out a list of college loan assistance, mortgage relief, heating oil assistance and more. But people who said they would vote for her today focused less on the specifics than on a prospect of a return to the booming economy presided over by her husband in the 1990s.
Obama supporters embraced his message that real economic reform can occur only under the guidance of someone capable of breaking the partisan logjam in Washington.
Fighting for attention, trailing in the polls, Edwards hammered home his message of economic populism, which he has stuck to more than any of the others since the start of the race.
Bill Clinton, running for president in 1992 as a relatively obscure Southern governor, set himself apart with his ability to show empathy to working-class Americans locked in the throes of a recession. His staff was so determined to remain focused on pocketbook issues that famously, it posted a sign at campaign headquarters that said, "It's the economy, stupid."
