Pat Dollard

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Related; Hillary: “This War Is Lost”

The Trail:
By Anne E. Kornblut

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton staged an Iraq-focused event — complete with a “Ready to Bring our Troops Home” poster — here today, but she did not seem to mind letting Sen. Barack Obama steal the day with his address a few hours earlier about race.

“I’m very glad he gave it,” Clinton said, although she said she had not read or seen the speech.

Clinton did not directly mention the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose inflammatory remarks as pastor of Obama’s church triggered the most recent round of racial debate on the campaign trail.

Still, some Clinton advisers believe having Obama on the defensive over racially charged remarks works well as both candidates pursue voters — including white, working-class ones — here in Pennsylvania ahead of the primary on April 22. Clinton said that both race and gender have arisen as “complicated” subjects in the campaign — and said she encouraged more discussion of them, even though both candidates have at times said they would prefer to rise above identity politics.

“Issues of race and gender in America have been complicated throughout our history, and they are complicated in this primary campaign,” Clinton told a small audience of supporters and reporters in a stately conference room in City Hall. “There have been detours and pitfalls along the way, but we should remember that this is an historic moment for the Democratic party and for our country. We will be nominating the first African American or woman for the presidency of the United States, and that is something that all Americans can and should celebrate.”

Clinton also talked about Iraq and the economy, topics she prefers. She was introduced by Valerie Plame, a native of Philadelphia, and her husband, former Amb. Joseph Wilson, who said Clinton should not be blamed for the war in Iraq.
And during a question-and-answer session, Clinton acknowledged that 11,000 pages of documents from her time as First Lady are about to be released for the first time. Asked about critics who believe she is insufficiently transparent, Clinton replied: “I think I’m probably the most transparent person in public life.”

“I feel you know a lot more about me than you know about anyone else — much of it untrue, but nevertheless,” Clinton said.