After Coralville speech, Clinton disputes notion she’s drifting left to match Sanders

CORALVILLE - Hillary Clinton is pushing back against suggestions she has tacked so far to the left in pursuit of progressive Democrats who are supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that she is alienating the broad center of the American electorate.

In recent weeks Clinton has offered a $350 billion debt-free public college plan and announced her opposition to both the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Keystone XL pipeline. In Coralville Tuesday, she talked about raising the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour and supporting localities that want to go higher.

Those moves track positions taken by Sanders and have generated speculation that Clinton is concerned about losing the support of her party's liberal - or progressive - base. At a briefing in Washington earlier this week, centrist Democrats likened Clinton's leftward shift to that of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's lurch to the right to win the support of religious and social conservatives.

Without referring to Sanders by name, William Daley, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, warned that the party may be dwelling too much on economic populism, which looks to 'either to blame, make somebody a victim, blame somebody who's been successful or blame business, or blame the government.” Democrats need more to rally around than being against the 1 percent, he said.

However, in an interview after she spoke to about 500 people in a Coralville city park Tuesday, Clinton wasn't having any of it.

'Well, no,” she said when asked about positions she has taken recently that some have called 'me too” responses to Sanders and his enthusiastic support. 'I don't think there is any tracking there at all. I am telling people what I believe and what I will do and staking out my positions.”

She didn't back away from her progressive positions.

'I have a long history and I would put my progressive credentials up against anybody, but as I said in the debate, I'm a progressive who likes to get things done,” Clinton said.

Her background, including advocacy for children and families, and as a Legal Services lawyer, Clinton said, give her the real world experience a president needs to develop and execute what Daly called a 'realistic, doable plan.”

'My experience in the White House, in the Senate, in the State Department is very relevant to how you actually move agendas and work across the aisle, and try to get some results,” Clinton said.

There are areas where Clinton and Sanders have clear differences. They are on opposite sides of the debate of the proper role for the U.S. in Syria. He's said sending fewer than 50 special operations forces to Syria to work with moderate opposition forces who are fighting the militants could lead to 'perpetual war.”

Clinton plans to 'watch and support what (Obama's) doing because I think it's important to take it in a measured way to see what is possible.”

Noting that American personnel have been present in Syria for more than a year, Clinton said she doesn't see U.S. involvement as a slippery slope.

'I think the president has been extremely cautious,” the former secretary of state said, adding that as president, she would consider sending more troops if it was necessary.

Clinton delayed taking a public stance on the pipeline out of deference to the president.

'I was trying to give enough space and respect to the president and my successor (at State),” she said, 'but I was being asked about it everywhere I went and I thought voters deserved to know what my position was.”

On the trade agreement, Clinton pointed to her record of supporting some trade deals and not others, such as giving presidents fast-track authority to negotiate agreements and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

'So I judge them on the merits,” Clinton said. 'I concluded after being briefed and learning as much as I could about what was in the (TPP) agreement (that) I couldn't support it.”