WP, pg1: In New Hampshire, Ties Clintons Forged Will Be Tested

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In N.H., Ties Clintons Forged Will Be Tested
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page A01


Hillary Rodham Clinton is accompanied by state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro in door-to-door campaigning in Manchester, N.H. She is now tied in state opinion polls with Barack Obama ahead of the Jan. 8 primary. (Jim Cole/AP)

PLAISTOW, N.H., Dec. 15 -- Faced with the prospect of defeat in the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is counting on the foundation she and her husband built in this state over the past decade and a half, forged around Bill Clinton's "comeback kid" finish in the 1992 Democratic primary and years of assiduous tending to their relationship with New Hampshire voters.

Yet there are signs that all the time spent building connections and nourishing the memories of 1992 in the state with the first-in-the nation primary will not necessarily be enough to make New Hampshire the bulwark that Clinton might need against an early setback. Last week, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) closed to a tie with Clinton in several opinion polls here, after being behind by 20 percentage points only three months ago. Some of the same people who jumped aboard Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign here and were later rewarded with administration positions or White House invitations say that won't automatically translate into support for Sen. Clinton this time around....

The strength of the Clinton-New Hampshire bond is looming ever larger as next month's voting approaches. In Iowa, where Bill Clinton did not campaign in 1992, Sen. Clinton and Obama are essentially tied in opinion polls. Should she lose there on Jan. 3, she will head into the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary in much the same situation that her husband did in 1992, hoping to see her campaign righted in the Granite State. Buffeted at the time by allegations of draft-dodging and marital infidelity, Bill Clinton had implored New Hampshire voters to look past all that and promised to stick with them "until the last dog dies." After finishing a solid second, he proclaimed himself resurrected.

Clinton campaign officials express confidence that she will prevail in the state, saying they expected all along that the race would tighten, just as it did in 2000 when Al Gore faced a tough fight with Bill Bradley. One reason they remain upbeat, they say, is the support for Clinton going back to her arrival in the state 16 years ago....

Yet some Clinton supporters are anxious. One staunch Clinton backer, a former elected official in the state, felt alarm on visiting Obama's headquarters in Manchester to pick up tickets for a friend for Oprah Winfrey's appearance with Obama last weekend and seeing how much "buzz" there was there. "I'm nervous. Obama's campaign feels like Jack Kennedy's. They seem so excited," said the supporter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign had not authorized the comments. "When I call Hillary's headquarters, there's no electricity. It's scary."

Clinton's New Hampshire firewall has been long in the making. After winning the presidency, Bill Clinton appointed a disproportionate number of Democrats from this small state to his administration....The unlikely close relationship between a former Arkansas governor brimming with Southern charm and a state known for its flintiness continued throughout Clinton's two terms. He carried the state twice in the general election. He or his advisers often called their contacts in the state to discuss local politics. In his final days in office, he made a farewell trip to thank the state for launching him in 1992. He urged Gore to consider then-New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate in 2000. Cynics speculated that the grooming of the state was done with an eye toward a future Hillary Clinton bid. But supporters here say it was a simple expression of gratitude....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501915.html?hpid=topnews