http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7028.html

Clinton and Obama switch roles in Iowa









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Clinton and Obama switch roles in Iowa

By: Mike Allen and Carrie Budoff Brown
Nov 26, 2007 06:01 AM EST



With the caucuses close, the one-time front-runner scrambles and the longtime underdog feels insurgent.
Photo: Composite image by Politico.com


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DES MOINES — In a reversal of fortune, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is barnstorming Iowa with a front-runner’s swagger while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) scrambles like an underdog.

In ways big and small over the weekend, the two campaigns exuded a sense of switched identities — a dynamic driven by poll-driven perceptions that Clinton’s sense of inevitability is slipping and Obama is riding a bit of a wave amid the Midwestern seas of grain.

The mood and stump styles of the two campaigns reflect this new reality: An ebullient Obama — coatless, tieless, tireless — conveys a sense that at least he thinks he could be on his way to being the next president. Clinton, mixing her traditional caution with a new toughness, is clearly set on knocking Obama off his game.

Clinton, like all the Democratic contenders, is now devoting the bulk of her time to Iowa. Either she or former President Bill Clinton plans to be in the state nearly every day through the Jan. 3 caucuses, with a break for Christmas.

In another acknowledgment of the tight race, Clinton has abandoned any pretense of remaining above the fray and has engaged Obama nearly every day along the campaign trail.


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