Clinton: I'll stay tough, no yelling

[ariesgem]

Keokuk, Ia. - Yelling and "generating a lot heat" aren't the way to accomplish reform, Hillary Clinton said Monday as she tried to send the message that, she, unlike her opponents for the Democratic nomination for president, will be a calm and tough leader.

"I submit to you there isn't anybody running who has taken on more special interests and gotten more done and survived the incoming fire than I have," Clinton told a friendly crowd of about 400 in Keokuk.

"I've taken on the drug companies. I've taken on the health insurance companies. I've taken on the oil companies. And I intend to keep doing it."

She added, her voice soft: "It's something you don't have to do by yelling and screaming. Save your energy. Get the job done."

The campaigns of Clinton's top Democratic competitors have criticized her as being too closely associated with special interests, especially in connection with the failed health care reform effort she led in the 1990s during her husband's first term as president.

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Clinton's campaign staff said she had read news reports that rival Barack Obama has gotten increasingly heated in his speeches and criticisms of his fellow Democrats. Clinton wants to send the message that that's not her style of campaigning or governing, they said.

"There's a lot of talk in this campaign about special interests - who's going to be harder on special interests," Clinton said, aiming to sound composed and confident. "You know, these are great applause lines in speeches." Clinton, whose slogan this fall was "Turn up the heat," added: "Instead of like generating a lot of heat and rolling your hands and jumping up and down, just sit down and figure out how we're going to beat 'em."

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded: "Senator Obama is the only candidate in this race who has actually taken power away from lobbyists by passing the strongest ethics reform in Washington since Watergate, and he did it by bringing Republicans and Democrats together. This isn't just campaign rhetoric; it's been the cause of his career."

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