Clinton extols healthcare plan in new ad

Hillary Clinton is following up her much-anticipated unveiling Monday of her universal healthcare plan with a new TV spot that hits the high points.

The 30-second ad, which will air in the first two states in the nomination calendar -- Iowa and New Hampshire, emphasizes that her plan would not force people to give up coverage they have and is designed to offer more affordable choices to eventually cover all 47 million Americans without coverage. In key ways, it is similar to the ones proposed by Barack Obama and John Edwards, her major rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Her plan, which she plans to discuss in a live webcast tonight, explicitly tries to avoid the criticisms that doomed the reform she pushed as First Lady in 1993 and 1994 -- and that remains the biggest blot on her resume: that it would take away choice and that it would create a huge new government bureaucracy.

Speaking of "Hillarycare," the new ad frame it in an interesting, almost glowing way, saying it "changed our way of thinking" on healthcare.

A CBS News poll released Monday night suggested that Democratic primary voters in particular trust Clinton more on healthcare than her rivals. While 61 percent said they have confidence in her ability to make the right decisions about healthcare, 42 percent said they have confidence in Obama, and 39 percent in Edwards. On another survey question, 49 percent said Clinton would do a better job on healthcare than other Democrats.

The poll also suggests that voters don't hold the failed 1990s reform effort against Clinton. Sixty-six percent said the experience will help Clinton and only 5 percent said she was "mostly responsible" for the lack of reform.