On trail for Obama, Clinton avoiding Palin 'cat fight'

Appealing for women's vote

Senator Hillary Clinton greeted supporters before speaking yesterday on Barack Obama's behalf in Kissimmee, Fla. (Joe Burbank/ Orlando Sentinel via Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton is avoiding taking on Sarah Palin directly in Clinton's first public appearances since the Alaska governor exploded onto the national scene last week.

Campaigning for Barack Obama yesterday in the toss-up state of Florida, Clinton barely uttered Palin's name. In a small amendment to an old line, she said: "No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin."

At another point, after praising the Democratic ticket's proposals to help middle-class Americans on taxes, healthcare, and other economic issues, Clinton said: "I didn't see that from Senator McCain and Governor Palin. I saw more of the same."

Palin will be campaigning in small towns of the sort where Clinton did well during the primaries, and she is directly appealing to Clinton's supporters. Some analysts say she poses a serious threat to Obama in such places; a Washington Post/ABC News poll released yesterday found GOP nominee John McCain had tied Obama, largely because he has gained support among white women since picking Palin. Clinton, analysts say, is the only Democrat with the national stature and the relationship with white working-class and rural women to blunt the excitement Palin is generating, and to make the argument that the GOP vice presidential nominee is an extremist on the issues.

"In the Democratic Party there is a very small subset of leaders who do have a track record and a capacity to appeal to these types of voters, and what that subset basically leaves you with is either President Clinton or Senator Clinton," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane.

But a former top aide to Clinton says the question of whether the New York senator will criticize Palin head-on comes from a chattering class desire for a "cat fight."

"Don't hold your breath. It's not going to happen," wrote Howard Wolfson, her former campaign communications director, in a blog post on the New Republic's website. "It's not in Hillary Clinton's interest, and it's certainly not in the interest of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party."

Clinton, who came closer to the presidency this year than any woman in history, has been watched closely in the days since Palin electrified the conservative base with her convention speech last week and began helping GOP nominee McCain draw crowds in the thousands. In the last several days, leading Democratic women including Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Senator Barbara Boxer of California have drawn sharp contrasts between Obama's and Palin's positions on abortion, global warming, and other issues, but Clinton has only done so obliquely.

"Women as well as men make their decisions after they weigh the evidence," Clinton told a 500-person rally yesterday in Kissimmee, Fla., according to the Associated Press. "As Americans go into that voting booth, what they have to ask themselves is not so much who am I for, as who is for me? And I don't think it's an even close question that we have the ticket that is going to do the best job in restoring the American promise."

In fact, the two women have largely been polite, even supportive of each other. Hours after McCain announced he had chosen Palin, Clinton put out a statement welcoming her to the race. The same day, Palin congratulated Clinton for putting "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling." Yesterday in Kissimmee, Clinton called Palin's selection "a great accomplishment."

The Palin issue is only the latest instance in which Clinton has found herself facing an awkward and heavy political responsibility since she dropped out of the race. At the end of the primaries, and again during the Democratic convention, she was under pressure to unite the party behind her former primary rival, Obama.

That, however, was clearly in her long-term interest, said Susan McManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida; campaigning against another history-breaking woman may not be.

"If she wants to run again, she's going to need Democrats and she's going to need women," she said.

Already some of Clinton's most ardent supporters, still smarting over what they considered sexist media coverage of Clinton's campaign, are speaking out against what they see as similar offenses against Palin. The New Agenda, a nonpartisan group that formed in the aftermath of the primary to fight for women's issues, sent out a letter chastising Senate majority leader Harry Reid, whose office issued a statement last week calling Palin's convention speech "shrill."

"We're getting e-mails from all over the country from women who are Hillary Clinton supporters - and men - who were saying what they're doing to Palin is what they did to Hillary," said Amy Siskind, a co-founder of the group, which lobbied McCain's top aides to choose a female running mate."

Some Democrats in rural areas of toss-up states doubt that the same voters who would take guidance from Clinton would also consider voting for Palin and therefore see no reason for Clinton to address Palin directly. All Clinton needs to do to help her party, they say, is to stump for Obama and help counter whatever new energy Palin has brought to the conservative base. "I think once Hillary Clinton becomes visible in these places, that's all we need," said John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pa., a small town near Pittsburgh, and a leader of Pennsylvania Sportsmen and Sportswomen for Obama.

Peggy Tanksley, a Clinton supporter and Ohio delegate to the Democratic National Convention, said the fence-sitters in her county are focused on economic issues. Clinton, she said, could be an effective surrogate for Obama but she should not overdo it because some voters who just want to learn more about the candidates might get "turned off" by a "cat fight."

"For Hillary to come out and say to those people, 'This is what needs to be done to improve your life, and these are the two men who are going to do it,' that would be a good push for Obama, and it might make a difference," she said. "But for her to go out and stump for him all over the place, I would have a concern that . . . might make people feel like it was taking away from the two candidates."

Lisa Wangsness can be reached at lwangsness@globe.com.