Clinton, Romney shift course

One e-mail making the rounds purports to be from Romney himself, and consists of an invitation to Iowa voters to "join me, a born-Mormon, and a growing number of disenchanted Christians in believing the following tenets of the Mormon religion." It lists several, each one likely more objectionable to Christian conservative caucus-goers than the last.

"Mormon men can have multiple wives in heaven — eternal polygamy," says one tenet, while another claims that "God the father had sex with Mary to conceive Jesus, who is the half brother of Lucifer."

Clinton responds to attacks
As nationwide front-runner, Clinton had largely shrugged off attacks from Obama, Edwards and others. As recently as Nov. 10, at a high-profile dinner attended by all the Democratic contenders, she told an Iowa audience, "I'm not interested in attacking my opponents. I'm interested in attacking the problems of America."

But she had turned in an admittedly sub-par debate performance 10 days earlier, and now it was Obama who came away from the Jefferson-Jackson dinner with glowing reviews.

By the night of a Nov. 15 debate, Clinton shelved whatever reluctance she had about responding to her attackers. She accused Edwards of slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook" and said Obama supported a health care plan that left out 15 million Americans.

"When your opponents attack, you need to respond and Senator Clinton is doing just that," spokesman Phil Singer said on Wednesday.

In the days since, she and her campaign have refined their strategy — leaving Edwards largely alone while hitting Obama incessantly on health care, accusing him of failing to be sufficiently supportive of abortion rights while in the Illinois Legislature and more.

Last week, en route from South Carolina to Texas, her plane put down in Iowa, where she suggested the health care issue stood for something more fundamental. "If anything, Democrats should stand for universal health care," she said last week. "That distinguishes us from the Republicans. The Republicans don't believe in it. Democrats do and we should fight for it."

Over the weekend, her aides depicted Obama as a lifelong politician. As evidence, they cited an essay he wrote in kindergarten titled, "I want to become president."

At the same time, Clinton's television commercials take a different approach.

Her latest Iowa ad shows retired Gen. Wesley Clark saying, "I see that Hillary's opponents have started attacking her. That's politics."

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