Can Recast Clinton Play to Nation?

Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times:

Six years ago, when Hillary Rodham Clinton first ran for the U.S. Senate, Republican Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds derided her as a carpetbagger who brought nothing to New York but overweening ambition.

Today, he raves about their relationship. "I've found her always willing to listen and to roll up her sleeves and go to work with me," the Buffalo-area lawmaker said in a phone call between recent campaign stops.

Loved and hated nationally as a liberal crusader who sought to reinvent the country's healthcare system in one audacious swoop, Clinton is widely seen in her adopted home state as something else entirely: a bipartisan problem-solver who has never seen an issue too parochial for her concern.

Garry Douglas, president of the Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce, said his organization presented Clinton with a wish list of roughly a dozen items during her first campaign, including a new crossing at the nearby Canadian border and expanded broadband access for the rural region. She delivered on every one, said Douglas, a Republican who voted against Clinton in 2000 but supports her reelection. Far from the imperial senator he expected, "I have found her to be remarkable in her accessibility," Douglas said.

Clinton strategists are mindful of how New York's Nov. 7 election returns will be studied. They are prepared to argue that a strong showing in traditionally Republican upstate New York proves that, if she runs for president, Clinton can reach beyond hard-core Democrats and win over independents and even dubious Republicans.

Yet skepticism abounds.

The hands-across-the-aisle approach has helped refashion Clinton's image at home. In September 2000, during her first Senate race, 62% of New York voters described Clinton as a liberal and 23% as a moderate, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. A follow-up survey this June found 47% describing Clinton as a liberal, and 34% calling her a moderate. Nearly one in three Republicans approved of her job performance.

But changing her image outside New York is another matter.

A White House bid is different than running for reelection to the Senate; political philosophy matters much more, and it is hard for candidates to pork-barrel their way to the presidency.