INDIANOLA, Iowa — As her allies acknowledged that her forceful attacks on Bernie Sanders have backfired, Hillary Clinton on Thursday softened the edges on her criticism of her main primary opponent, arguing that his heart is in the right place even if his proposals are wrong.

Her new tone marked a contrast from last week, when her forceful dismissal of his universal health care system appeared to boomerang.


Clinton allies grimaced when Chelsea Clinton told a crowd in New Hampshire that the Vermont senator would “dismantle Obamacare." She was the wrong messenger, they said, delivering the wrong message.

The Clinton campaign said the former first daughter was merely responding to a question. But even Clinton’s own attacks on Sanders’ “Medicare for All” health care plan seemed to unsettle many Democrats who consider a single-payer system a cherished ideal.

“His plan would take Medicare and Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act health care insurance and private employer health insurance, and he would take that all together and send health insurance to the states, turning over your and my health insurance to governors,” she said last week, calling out Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

Clinton allies said the attacks alienated potential supporters.

“For Hillary and Chelsea to say the likes of Bernie Sanders are going to result in people losing their health care — what are they talking about?” fumed one 2008 veteran.

Sanders’ campaign did fundraising off the onslaught from her surrogates and campaign. “Thanks, Team Clinton,” a spokesman blasted out in a news release last week, announcing the campaign raised $1.4 million in the day following her attacks.

But on Thursday, in organizing meetings across Iowa, Clinton struck a different tone — she embraced Sanders’ ideals while explaining why she believes her methods are a better way of getting there.

“Sen. Sanders and I share many of the same goals,” she said at the first of three events, an organizing meeting at Simpson College in Indianola. And later in her 30-minute speech, discussing Sanders’ health care plan: “I know Sen. Sanders cares about covering more people, as I do.”

But her message was clearer: “in theory isn’t enough … I’m not interested in ideas that sound good on paper, but will never make it in the real world.”

Lauding Sanders for having the right idea, at least, may have been a more appealing tone for the audience, where many of Clinton’s own diehard supporters said they like what they see in Sanders.

“I know Bernie, and I think he’s a good man — and I think he’d be a good running mate,” said Sally Gibson, a retired teacher supporting Clinton. “He’s a good man, we need people like that.”

Indeed, Clinton tried to straddle the line between lauding Sanders’ intentions while portraying his plans as unrealistic.

“Sen. Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years — he’s introduced his health care plan nine times,” Clinton said. “But he never got even a single vote in the House, or a single Senate co-sponsored. Now he has a new plan. You hear a promise to build a whole new system, but that’s not what you’ll get. You’ll get gridlock. And endless wait for advancements that will never come. The people I’ve met can’t wait.”

“In theory,” she said, “there’s a lot to like about some of his ideas. ... A president has to deliver in reality.”

At the second event of the day, an organizing rally in at a Vinton skating and recreation center, twice she referred to Sanders as “my esteemed opponent.”

“He shares my goal of getting to universal coverage,” she told the crowd there, “but I think it’s a lot easier to get from 90 percent coverage to 100 percent coverage than from 0 to 100 percent. ... Let’s build on what works.”

Clinton made no mention of Sanders' record on guns, which her campaign aggressively attacked last week. But she opened a new line of attack on his foreign policy, as her senior policy aide Jake Sullivan held a conference call with reporters to raise questions about Sanders’ plan for ISIL and Iran.

That matched her toughest line of attack on the ground in Iowa. “Sen. Sanders doesn’t talk very much about foreign policy, but when he does, it raises concerns because sometimes it can sound like he hasn’t really thought it through,” she said. “For example, he suggested we invite Iranian troops into Syria. That is like asking the arsonist to be the firefighter. As bad as things are in Syria, more Iranian troops are only going to make it worse.”

Clinton’s recalibration of her strategy for dealing with Sanders comes as she begins her final push for support in Iowa. With 10 days to go before the Feb. 1 caucus, a CNN-ORC poll released Thursday showing Sanders 8 points ahead of Clinton, 51 percent to 43 percent.

Sanders’ aides argued that she was recycling her failed argument from eight years ago — that her opponent simply wanted to wave a "magic wand" to fix the country's problems. “They’re running the same campaign, the same line of attacks, with the same results," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said on MSNBC.

On Thursday morning, Sanders released one of the last television ads he will run here, a moving montage of Iowans and the swelling crowds at his rallies set to “America” by Simon & Garfunkel. The message was one of inclusiveness — that the campaign here wasn’t about him, it was about the people who built the movement. There were no attacks on Clinton or even his dreaded “billionaiihhs” — there were no words at all, just feelings.

It was one last reminder of the enthusiasm gap Clinton is struggling with. She has detailed, reasonable, achievable plans, but Sanders has Simon & Garfunkel and roaring crowds.