In a roughly 45-minute speech on Saturday, Hillary Rodham Clinton made 14 references to herself as a fighter.
She said she would “fight” back against Republicans, “fight” climate change, “fight” to “strengthen America’s families” and “fight” to “harness all of America’s power.” She used the verb in many of the same ways at her first major rally in Des Moines on Sunday, adding that she would “fight” for Midwestern values.
The presidential campaign’s effort to define Mrs. Clinton as a fighter is, on the surface, a way to persuade middle-class voters that she is on their side. But it is also helping to convey a more subtle message: When it comes to political combat and perseverance, Mrs. Clinton is not President Obama.
The theme is emerging just as Mr. Obama has suffered a major setback on trade, one that many in Congress say reflects his weaknesses, namely his standoffishness and his inability to forge coalitions for an agenda.
During her campaign swing in Iowa on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton said no one would be a “tougher negotiator” on trade than she would. She offered her most explicit remarks yet on the president’s handling of the issue, challenging him to work with Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, and other congressional Democrats to improve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
My view is the White House should call Nancy and a few other of the Democrats to say, ‘What would it take to get an agreement that would be better and not worse for American workers?’” Mrs. Clinton said.
She added: “What I want to see is a concerted effort to see how far we can push the agreement.”
In the early months of her campaign, Mrs. Clinton has worked to highlight her connection to, and respect for, the president she served for four years as secretary of state. She has appealed to Mr. Obama’s coalition of young and African-American voters with sweeping speeches on voting rights and civil rights. And even as liberal Democrats urged her to speak out against Mr. Obama’s troubled trade deal, Mrs. Clinton had for the most part remained mum.
But now that Democrats in Congress have rebuffed Mr. Obama in a public and embarrassing way, Mrs. Clinton faces heightened pressure to present herself to voters as a different kind of leader, in style if not in substance.
At the same time, Clinton aides believe that if they can make the “tenacious fighter” image stick with voters, “ultimately she will win this election,” the campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Friday at a question-and-answer session hosted by Politico.
A new biographical video from the campaign, titled “Fighter,” opens with a silhouette of Mrs. Clinton as a voice says: “What is a fighter? To me, a fighter is someone who won’t give up.”
Persistence is another emphasis. In the video and on the stump, Mrs. Clinton talks about her unsuccessful attempt to overhaul the health care system as first lady and how she continued to work and eventually got the Children’s Health Insurance Program passed.
The inevitable contrast with Mr. Obama’s leadership style that such language draws is not lost on Democrats in early
nominating states.
“Her years in Arkansas, as first lady, as a losing candidate in 2008 and as secretary of state — all of that taught her to be tough and to keep on going,” said Marti Anderson, an Iowa state representative who has a 2008 Obama campaign sticker on the front door of her Des Moines home.
“Obama’s quiet, a studious person, a wonk, a constitutional lawyer. Hillary is more of an activist,” Mrs. Anderson said. “And you need an activist when you have, for instance, a Congress that puts obstacles in your way. An activist doesn’t stop trying.”
Mrs. Clinton’s efforts to draw a contrast must be subtle, lest she alienate the Democratic base of voters who supported Mr. Obama. When asked whether the positioning of Mrs. Clinton is a strategy to distance her from Mr. Obama, a campaign spokesman reiterated that she is a “tenacious, dogged fighter” and that the description would be “front and center” in the campaign.
It helps that she has also earned a public image of not giving up, said Kiki McLean, a former aide to Mrs. Clinton.
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