Clinton Brandishes Plan To 'Green' America

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Campaigning in a "fair trade"-friendly region where liberal Democratic candidates, such as Bill Bradley and Howard Dean, have flourished in the past, Senator Clinton is brandishing her plans to "green" America in an apparent attempt to pick off voters leaning toward Senator Obama or John Edwards.

Mrs. Clinton spoke yesterday to an 800-person audience, which filled Peterborough's historic town hall to capacity. Appearing with Bob Vila, the creator of the PBS television program "This Old House," Mrs. Clinton made a direct appeal on such issues as energy independence, climate change, and historic preservation, a hot topic in an area filled with old farm houses. While Peterborough lies a winding forty-minute drive through the hills from Nashua, the community is neither suburban nor middle America. A clothing shop across the street from her speech, for instance, offered "world crafts clothing," including a polka-dot sweater "hand-made by a woman's cooperative in Nepal." One questioner at her town hall boasted of never owning "a drier" or a "washer" before asking about the "seven years we have been subject to fearmongering."

During her remarks, Mrs. Clinton told the audience of her plan to issue 50 million "energy independence bonds" in a decade, and she introduced a pledge to reduce global warming, to which voters can make by going on her campaign's Web site. She encouraged listeners to go to the store one time a day, as opposed to three, so as to "avoiding sending money to these regimes to use against us." While vowing that the transition to a more environmentally aware country would not fall on the middle class, she spoke of the change her policies might mean for Americans. In response to a question about bringing back the practice of car-pooling, she said, "During World War II, people did a lot of things they didn't want to do because it was in the national interest."

Her focus on the environment follows several weeks of prominent television advertising in New Hampshire from Mr. Obama who, in the spot, assails "sending $800 million a day, part to hostile nations because of our addiction to foreign oil."

Her plans did not include embracing nuclear power, a third rail where opposition to the Seabrook plant was a cause celebre for many years, and failed to extend to a full-throated call of support for a wind farm off of Massachusetts's Cape Cod, opposed by Senator Kennedy.

Plagued by a hacking cough, she stopped for several moments during her prepared remarks to clear her throat. After sipping water, she began speaking in a whispery voice and quipped, "I sound like Tallulah Bankhead," a sultry star of stage and screen in the 1920s and 1930s. As she struggled to speak, a man hollered, "Hang in there." She croaked, "One thing you know about me is I hang in there." The audience responded with tremendous applause.