On the Ground and in the Air With the Democrats

In Defiant Tones, Clinton Rallies Texas Supporters

-- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped gently down the aisle of her campaign plane Saturday morning, jumping to avoid oranges that were rolling between the seats. When it came time for a brief question-and-answer session with reporters, she dodged with just as much agility.

Had she ever had a "red phone" moment of the kind that she said only she could handle in the White House?

"That's not the right question," Clinton responded.

How could voters know that she could manage the White House, given the management problems in her campaign?

"I think Senator McCain also had some challenges," Clinton said.

And what about Sen. Barack Obama's assertion that his early opposition to the Iraq war was a sign of better judgment than what she had shown?

"His entire campaign is based on one speech he gave at an antiwar rally in 2002," she said.

Clinton took on an air of defiance as she campaigned at less-than-full rallies across Texas. She continued to pick up anecdotes about voters she met along the way -- a woman without health care whose daughter collapsed at a rally in Houston; a Pearl Harbor veteran she hoped to honor -- and grew increasingly sarcastic about her opponent and his campaign of "words" and "hope."

There were, despite her disdain for the sentiment, signs of hope for Clinton in Texas: Public polls had her running about evenly with Obama, and her campaign said early voting showed strong turnout among women and older voters, her core constituencies. Although her crowds were not at full capacity on Saturday, several thousand showed up to cheer her at the Stockyards in Fort Worth, as did thousands more at the state fairgrounds in Dallas. She was scheduled to fly to Ohio on Saturday night to join an "88-hour, 88-county" bus tour with her surrogates there. Polls show a deadlocked race in that state, as well.