In pursuit of change, she said, Democrats must be sure to "nominate and elect a doer, not a talker" and to "separate out rhetoric from reality." She did not mention Obama by name, but her intent was clear.
Romney fired away at Sen. John McCain of Arizona in an interview on Fox News Sunday.
"He's been there [in Washington] 27 years and hasn't got the job done," Romney said. "I think he's been ineffective in making the changes America wants to see."
Of the two beleaguered candidates, both of whom were trailing in the latest polls here, Clinton appears to be in the stronger position. Her national stature gives her a real chance of surviving a defeat in New Hampshire.
But in a sign of the urgency felt by her strategists, Clinton introduced new lines into her stump speech yesterday, all of them aimed at Obama's claim to the mantle of change. These were her words:
"If you gave a speech saying you're going to vote against the Patriot Act and then you don't, that's not change . . .
"If you gave a speech, and a very good speech, against the war in Iraq in 2002, and then by 2004 you're saying you're not sure how you would have voted, and by 2005, 6 and 7 you vote for $300 billion for the war you said you were against, that's not change."
Clinton cited five instances in which, she alleged, Obama's actions did not match his words. By the end, the audience was chanting "That's not change" along with her.
In an effort to draw a contrast between her own command of the details and Obama's rhetorical dazzle, she has been devoting the vast majority of her town-hall meetings in New Hampshire to questions and answers.
Yesterday, she took questions from the audience for an hour. In Iowa, she rarely took any.
