A sign supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton in Indianola, Iowa, last year.Credit Daniel Acker for The New York Times
Good Tuesday morning from Washington, where commemorations are beginning for the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln‘s assassination. This week, the Capitol prepares for its first congressional yoga sessions, and former Senator Bob Graham is still scribbling in his notebooks. In Miami, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida joined a growing field of presidential contenders, and Hillary Rodham Clinton made her way to Iowa, with stops for lunch, in a van. Her campaign team there says it has big plans for small events to show her humble side.
With Hillary Rodham Clinton on the road to Iowa in her van, nicknamed “Scooby,†her staff there is working to ensure that her two days in the state are ultra-low-key.
In Iowa during her first presidential race eight years ago, Mrs. Clinton gained a reputation for aloofness and acting as though her nomination was assured, in part by holding large rallies. Now she is out to prove she is a humble candidate scrapping for every vote.
Her first stop, on Tuesday in Monticello in northeast Iowa, is not just at a community college, a senior campaign official said, it is at “a remote campus in Jones County.”
“We’re going to work very hard to make the structure of her day and her travel and her interactions as personal as we can,” the aide added. The aide and other campaign officials spoke in a conference call with reporters on Monday on the condition that they not be named.
“This is about everyday Iowans, their hopes, their dreams and what they want in the future,” the aide said.
In keeping with the low-key effort, her two announced events – the second at a family-owned fruit company south of Des Moines on Wednesday — are invitation-only. Television coverage will be limited to local stations, with a pooled camera for national networks.
The campaign officials said Mrs. Clinton would return to Iowa often and would visit every corner of the state to recruit supporters ahead of the caucuses in February.
At the same time, the campaign is lowering expectations, emphasizing that rarely has a Democrat captured more than 50 percent of caucusgoers, though so far, Mrs. Clinton faces no rivals.
“She is going to fight for every single vote, every single caucusgoer in Iowa,” a second top campaign aide said.
– Trip Gabriel
Stay tuned throughout the day @NYTpolitics for First Draft updates.
What We’re Watching Today
Commemorating both the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, last week, and the assassination of President Lincoln , on Wednesday, the Ford’s Theater in Washington has events lined up each day in April. At 10:15 p.m., the theater will set up Wednesday’s activities with a candlelight vigil.
President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will meet at the White House with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Ernest J. Moniz, the energy secretary who took the initial lead in selling the framework for a nuclear deal with Iran, will meet with the House Democratic Caucus and then with the Senate.
Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold her first campaign event in Iowa.
Democrats Prepare Attack on Rubio’s Approaches to Immigration
More than a year ago, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida backed away from a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill he helped draft, as his aides argued a piecemeal approach was more feasible given opposition in the House.
Yet Mr. Rubio, now a Republican presidential candidate, still features the effort behind that bill prominently on his Senate website.
Under the header “Immigration Reform Facts,” Mr. Rubio’s aides offered a lengthy series of questions and answers about the bill, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity & Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.”
In October 2013, Mr. Rubio moved away from a sweeping bill, saying there simply wasn’t support for it. But his initial backing of the large-scale effort appealed to some Republican donors and business leaders, and his step back disappointed them.
Democrats have made it clear they plan to use Mr. Rubio’s involvement with the failed comprehensive overhaul effort against him, because he comes from a crucial presidential state and is seen as a threat given his appeal to Hispanic voters.
– Maggie Haberman
Bulletins: Obama’s 50th (State); Clinton’s Company; O’Malley’s Plea
President Obama will go to South Dakota in May, the White House said, making it the 50th state he has visited as president.
Robby Mook, the campaign manager for Hillary Rodham Clinton, said that though she was the lone Democratic candidate at the moment, “we know that the Democratic primary is going to be competitive, despite what some people might tell you.”
Former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat who is considering a presidential run, used YouTube’s brand new interactive cards to direct viewers to a fund-raising page.
Our Favorites From Today’s Times
In The New York Times Magazine, Mark Leibovich, who covered the 2008 presidential elections for The Times, argues that it might be overkill to cover each candidate’s formal announcement, comparing it to covering a child’s birthday party.
The Times looks at what it might take for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to win the nomination, his views on several issues and things you might not know about him.
Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped for lunch on her road trip to Iowa, but no one noticed. At first.
Kelley Paul says she is intent on making her husband, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, seem more approachable.
The Stalwart at Bob Graham’s Side Since 1977: His Trusty Notebook
Former Senator Bob Graham of Florida and his longtime pursuit of a connection between Saudi officials and the Sept. 11 hijackers are back in the news.
In Washington, his high profile on the issue has prompted another question: Does Mr. Graham still keep a running account of his day in the pocket-size spiral notebooks that he began filling in 1977? The answer is yes: The trademark notebook is still close at hand.
During a recent interview about his clash with the F.B.I. over Sept. 11 inquiries, Mr. Graham quickly produced a notebook and read aloud its most recent entry: “Prepare for the New York Times visit, 12:30 to 12:45.”
Many in Washington considered his habit endearing, but Mr. Graham’s advisers were worried enough about his note-taking when he was running for president in 2003 that they made some of them public to defuse any suggestion that Mr. Graham’s routine was wacky or weird.
Mr. Graham doesn’t think the notebooks doomed his White House bid. But he did suggest that his appearance in a 1984 Jimmy Buffett music video made advisers to Michael Dukakis nervous and kept him off the ticket as vice president in 1988.
– Carl Hulse
What We’re Reading Elsewhere
Slate says that Hillary Rodham Clinton seems to have learned at least one lesson from her loss to Barack Obama in 2008.
The Washington Blade profiled the gay couple featured in Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s announcement video. The Des Moines Register does the same for all the people in the video.
Politico opens the inner circle of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, now presidential candidate.
A Congressional Delegation of the Downward-Facing Dog
Congress has been long contorting itself in all kinds of uncomfortable positions as lawmakers struggle to bridge partisan divides.
Soon, they will have the chance to take their act outside.
First Draft has learned that Representative Candice S. Miller of Michigan, the Republican chairwoman of the Committee on House Administration, has granted approval of the first Congressional Yogi Association. On May 1, members of Congress and their staffs will be able to work on their poses on the West Lawn of the Capitol.
“The extremely high levels of stress Americans deal with on a daily basis is an important issue facing our country,†said Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, who is hosting the event and already runs a weekly meditation session for his staff.
According to its mission statement, the Congressional Yogi Association hopes that yoga’s teachings of patience and acceptance will make members of Congress better public servants as “yoga transcends political ideologies.â€
Yoga has already proven popular in Washington, with Michelle Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton among the devoted yogis. Organizers of the program, which is timed for Mental Health Awareness Month, said they expected that yoga would become a frequent activity at the Capitol during recesses and weekends.
Whether a more flexible Congress will lead to legislative breakthroughs remains to be seen.
– Alan Rappeport
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