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Clinton And Sanders Test New Campaign Tactics Ahead Of New Hampshire

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders looks poised to beat Hilary Clinton in this Tuesday's primary. NPR's Tamara Keith reports you can tell the candidates' place in the race by how they are campaigning.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hillary Clinton's campaign did something unusual. It went on the website Reddit and invited Bernie Sanders supporters to attend a town hall meeting to ask her questions. What followed was a contentious 90 minutes including a question about Benghazi, her email server and why voters don't trust her. And there was one from a young woman who asked Clinton about why she seemed so rehearsed and, quote, "boring." Clinton said part of it stems from the challenge of trying to be the first female president.

(SOUNDBITE FROM ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HILLARY CLINTON: When you're running for political office - particularly when you're running for president - there is still a huge double standard.

KEITH: And that, Clinton says, has made her more careful.

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CLINTON: And so part of what I have to do is be my best self, present the best way I know how. I am who I am. I can't do some kind of, you know, personality transformation.

KEITH: But Clinton has transformed her stump speech in an effort to reach young people who overwhelmingly support Bernie Sanders. Clinton's surrogate, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, had an even more pointed message for the young women who support Sanders over Clinton.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Hillary Clinton will always be there for you, and just remember there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other.

KEITH: It is an Albright quote so famous, it was once put on a Starbuck's cup, but had extra bite in the context of the presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Sanders largely kept to his regular stump speech at a rally at a New Hampshire college, except for a line meant to tamp down high expectations for his performance Tuesday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BERNIE SANDERS: She won the Democratic primary back in 2008. Her husband campaigned successively in a number of campaigns here. And here in New Hampshire, if we can bring out a decent vote on Tuesday, I am confident we're going to win.

KEITH: After that event, Sanders flew to New York to appear on "Saturday Night Live." He was in a skit about the Titanic.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

SANDERS: We need to unite and work together, if we're all going to get through this.

LARRY DAVID: Sounds like socialism to me.

SANDERS: Democratic socialism.

DAVID: What's the difference?

SANDERS: Huge difference.

KEITH: Later in the show, host Larry David asked Sanders how things are going up in New Hampshire. Sanders response, it's pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Manchester, N.H. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tamara Keith
Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.