Released: July 25, 2006

Hillary Clinton eyes middle class and working poor

Source: By Anne E. Kornblut (Free Registration)

With divisions in the Democratic Party on full display nationwide, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to stake out the center here on Monday, issuing a broad policy platform geared toward helping middle-class voters and the working poor through a series of tax credits and other modest government programs.

Titled the “American Dream Initiative,” Mrs. Clinton’s 20-page plan was the culmination of a yearlong project she led at the Democratic Leadership Council, the group of moderate Democrats that helped start her husband’s presidential bid in 1991. “To paraphrase the 1992 campaign: It’s the American dream, stupid,” Mrs. Clinton said in her keynote address at the council’s convention, a reference to her husband’s “It’s the economy, stupid” refrain from his first race.

Mrs. Clinton, who leads many polls for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, continued: “Democrats stand ready to lead again. Now all we have to do is win elections.”

The leadership council, which gained prominence by advocating a “third way” of governing from the middle of the political spectrum, has in recent years become a target for liberals who say the party establishment has sold out its core values, refused to stand up against Republicans and lost two successive presidential elections in the process.

But at the two-day convention, participants harked back to the Bill Clinton era as a model for winning elections and governing, and debated how to reunite the Democratic Party at a time when its members are sharply split over Iraq.

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