In Iowa, Hillary Clinton lays out big vision for her campaign

Monticello, Ia. – Democrat Hillary Clinton, at the first official event of her presidential campaign, spelled out the ideas that she said will be at the heart of her campaign.

"I want to be the champion who goes to bat for Americans in four big areas," she told four students and three educators at a roundtable staged in an automotive technology classroom at a community college.

It was the first time Clinton had laid out specific campaign themes since she announced on Sunday in a short video that she's in the 2016 race for the Oval Office.

"We need to build the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday," she said, as a handpicked audience of 20 and about 60 reporters looked on. "We need to strengthen families and communities because that's where it all starts.

"And we need to fix the dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment," she said. "And we need to protect our country from threats that we see and the ones that are on the horizon. So I'm here in Iowa to begin a conversation about how we do that."

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Republicans noted that as Clinton spoke, big Democratic donors, including Clinton allies, were convening in California to talk this week about spending millions of dollars on liberal groups. And the New York Times reported last week that her campaign and her allies will likely haul in $2.5 billion, "dwarfing the vast majority of her would-be rivals in both parties."

In 2008, Clinton's final presidential campaign rally in Iowa was at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, a city with a substantial Democratic population. She came full circle Tuesday kicking off her premier 2016 event at Kirkwood, but at one of its 11 regional sites. The Jones County Regional Center, just south of Monticello, is one of four where students can earn college credits or certificates while concurrently enrolled in high school.

It was no accident that she chose a community college, Clinton said. The colleges are part of her plan for a better future, she said.

Clinton hit on points that catered to the liberal base in Iowa, saying the economy has improved, but "it's fair to say the deck is still stacked in favor of those already at the top. There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker.

"There's something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, as they have, and as I just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks," said Clinton who took a tour of the college.

"And there's something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days," she said. "There's something wrong when students and their families have to go deeply into debt to be able to get the education and skills they need in order to make the best of their own lives."

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Clinton traveled cross-country from her home state of New York to get to Iowa Monday night, riding in a van with Secret Service and a couple staffers.

"A lot of people in the last few days have asked me, 'Well, why do you want to do this?' And 'What motivates you?' And I guess the short answer is I've been fighting for children and families my entire adult life - probably because of my mother's example. She had a really difficult childhood, was mistreated, neglected, but she never gave up," she said.

Clinton said she was also thinking about the lesson she learned in church that "you're supposed to give back and help others."

As a candidate who is just starting to re-introduce herself to Iowans since she ended her 2008 campaign, she ticked off basic points on her resume. Clinton talked about working for a children's defense fund, then in Arkansas worked to improve education. As first lady, she fought for health care reform and kept fighting until they passed health insurance for kids, she said. As a U.S. senator, she dealt with problems New York faced after 9/11. "And then as secretary of state standing up for our country," she said.

Clinton said: "I want to stand up and fight for people so they cannot just get by, but they get ahead and stay ahead."

Then she asked for thoughts from those at the roundtable -- Diane Temple, an composition instructor at the community college; Ellen Schlarmann, a junior at Monticello High School; Andrew Lorimer, a senior at Springville High School; Drew Moellenhauer, a student at Central City High School; Jason McLaughlin, the principal at Central City High; and Bethany Moore, a non-traditional student and mother of three; and Kirkwood Community College President Mick Starcevich.

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After the 1 1/2-hour event, she responded to three questions that reporters called out. Clinton repeated her rationale from running, and told reporters she was going to "steal" an idea from Starcevich about an "opportunity system," where the K-12 and college education systems help students find the right career paths.

But Clinton turned away when the press shouted out more questions, saying with a smile: "More to come, everybody." A likely Democratic rival, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, did nine press gaggles to answer reporters' questions and did nine one-on-one interviews, his backers say.

Press dodging, trust and inevitability were the themes in Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann's statement in response to Clinton's visit. "We're glad Hillary Clinton finally arrived for her Democratic coronation, but there are still many questions left unanswered," he said. One question, he said, is "how are Iowans supposed to trust you when your decades in D.C. have been marked with endless scandal and controversy?"

Clinton's campaign aides intentionally designed her two-day debut Iowa swing to be a listening tour, staged in small, casual settings, mostly out of the glare of press scrutiny. They've said she will take a more humble approach this time around, recasting the focus away from herself and onto ordinary Americans. And her strategists have already begun to downplay expectations for her predicted victory in the Iowa caucuses in February, saying "This is going to be a competitive caucus."