Touting experience, Clinton says she’s ‘ready, willing, able’

TOLEDO - It's truly the hardest job in the world, Hillary Clinton told a Tama County audience Monday night, but she's 'ready, willing and able” take on the responsibility that comes with being the president.

'There is a complicated job waiting for the next president that we have to make sure we get right,” Clinton said at a campaign stop at the Toledo Civic Center. 'I have a front-row seat to what it means to be in that cauldron. I've seen it up close and personal.”

It's part of the argument the former Democratic first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state has been making - that she won't need on-the-job training.

She has convinced Jim Blocker Jr., who was visiting his hometown. He caucused for then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, but he's backing Clinton this year because he thinks her experience is right for the job.

'She did a good job as secretary of state. That's huge for me,” Blocker said.

Across the room was Vicki De Angelo of Grinnell, who said she was a Clinton supporter 'from way back.”

'I thought she was great” in 2008, De Angelo said. 'And she's so much more this time.”

Clinton's prospects are better this year, she said, 'because the country is more open to electing a woman president. Other countries have done it, so why can't we?”

On the night after many political analysts said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won the final Democratic debate before the Feb. 1 caucuses, De Angelo wasn't worried about that or recent polls showing the race is tightening.

According to a RealClearPolitics.com average of polls, she leads Sanders by 4 percentage points, or 46.8 to 42.8 percent.

A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll earlier this month showed Clinton up 42 to 40 percent. But a Quinnipiac University Poll, in the field at the same time, found Sanders leading 49 to 44 percent, a shift from her 51 to 40 percent lead in mid-December.

Diane Nitz of Tama isn't looking at the polls. Describing herself as 'an independent looking for a candidate,” Nitz said she's looking for someone who demonstrates 'confidence, commitment and sincerity.”

So far, she has seen Sanders and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, but hasn't made up her mind who she will support - or even if she will caucus.