Publicity:

Can Hillary Rodham Clinton become the second member of her family to become President of the United States of America?

Is she on an ego trip to match the achievement of husband, bad boy Bill, or does she really have the vision to be a much more successful President Clinton?

A few months ago Clinton's nomination seemed inevitable - but she's facing a very real challenge from the charismatic Barack Obama, who's promising a break from the past and hope for the future.

Washington Correspondent Tracy Bowden has been tracking the Hillary bandwagon through the slush and snow of the Democratic primary elections.

Clinton has tackled head-on one of the biggest issues telling the faithful in New Hampshire,   "I am proud to be running to be the first woman president. It is historic, it is exciting, but I am not running because I am a woman, I am running because I believe I have the qualifications and the experience to do the job that needs to be done starting January 2009."

Clinton has made many enemies in her political career but few more poisonous than former Bill Clinton advisor Dick Morris. He tells Bowden that if Americans knew the real Hillary they'd never vote for her. "They would find her cold and aloof and calculating as a person, and they would find her hopelessly to the left as a politician and the American people would reject that."

Another hurdle is that Americans have become disillusioned through the Bush Administration with dynastic politics. Bush the younger has alienated many who admired the first President George Bush, and many worry about the influence Bill Clinton would have over Hillary.

Sally Bedell Smith, who wrote For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years tells Bowden, "By virtue of his quite outsized dominating domineering personality he (Bill) could be a real intimidating force in the White House. So there are some inherent dangers in it because there will be two presidents; it could even distort the way the executive branch is supposed to function."

Bedell Smith, Morris and other American political insiders who know the Clintons provide unique insights and reveal what sort of president Hillary Clinton would be.

Hillary at rally

HILLARY:  Would we ever elect a woman president? And I don't think we'll know ‘til we try and I'm going to try and with your help I think we can do it. (cheers)

00:00

BOWDEN:  From the moment Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy, her character and qualifications have been challenged.

00:25

Dick Morris
Political Commentator

DICK MORRIS:  The real Hillary is cold and calculating, the real Hillary is a policy wonk.

00:33

Anne Wexler
Lobbyist

ANNE WEXLER:  I don't think she is cold and calculating at all, I think she is smart and organised.

00:38

Hillary at support rally

Intro: The next president of the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton...

HAROLD ICKES:  Most people in America know Hillary Clinton from the bashing that

00:43

Harold Ickes

Clinton Adviser

the Republicans inflicted on her eight years in the White House, that is their total understanding of her.

00:51

Sally Bedell Smith

Author  For Love of Politics
Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years.

SALLY BEDELL SMITH:  She sometimes isn't as unflappable as she would like everybody  to believe. There's a certain emotional vulnerability that she has that hasn't shown.

00:57

Hillary meets and greets

DICK MORRIS:   The single biggest challenge that Hillary has, is that if people knew what she was really like as a person and what she really believes in as a politician they would never vote for her.

01:10

Morris. Super:  Dick Morris

Former Clinton advisor

They would find her cold and aloof and calculating and all that as a person, and they would find her hopelessly to the left as a politician and the American people would reject that.

01:19

News story 1996

Commentary: It could hardly have happened at a worse time, on the eve of Bill Clinton's acceptance speech a sex scandal involving his most senior political advisor, Dick Morris.

BOWDEN:  He was once Bill Clinton's most trusted advisor...

01:31

Dick Morris file footage

DICK MORRIS:   I was sitting with the President one night and we were working on some speech...

BOWDEN:  ...but in 1996 Dick Morris was forced to resign, after it was revealed he had allowed a prostitute to listen in on conversations with the President. He's now re-invented himself

01:45

Dick Morris

as a Hillary Clinton critic.

DICK MORRIS:  I believe Hillary would be a very liberal president and I think she would take the United States in directions that would be very harmful to us.

02:01

BOWDEN:  You went from being part of the Clinton's inner circle, to I guess being on the outer,

02:09

has that jaundiced your views?

DICK MORRIS:  Well, my views on Bill Clinton have never changed, I think he was a very good president and I still feel that, particularly from the neck up. (laughs)

02:15

Hillary file footage/photos

The very qualities that made Hillary a joy to work for as a campaign manager make her a little bit scary as a president. That sort of steel trap mind, the dogmatic approach to stuff, the feeling that the ends justify the means,

02:27

Morris

the willingness to be as aggressive as necessary in winning an election.

02:41

Hillary at New Hampshire rally

HILLARY:  I want to be a president who sets goals and here are my four big  goals; number one I want to restore America's leadership around the world; Number 2, I want to  rebuild a strong and prosperous middle class, Number 3, I want to  reform the government so it works competently again, and number four I want to reclaim the future for our children.

02:46

HAROLD ICKES:   Hillary Clinton is a progressive in the true sense of that word. You know she --  I would not characterise

03:08

Ickes. Super: 
Harold Ickes
Clinton campaign advisor

her as left, but I would characterise her as a real progressive who understands that government is not the end all and the be all, on the other hand she understands that government can serve very important functions.

03:14

BOWDEN:  Harold Ickes is still in the Clinton inner circle. The veteran strategist  helped Hillary Clinton run for the senate in 2000, and is back on board for this campaign.

03:26

HAROLD ICKES: There are some very big, profound issues. Economic security is clearly one and one of the key issues within that big issue is health care. I think re-orienting the economy. Again, not big, huge changes, but refocusing the economy so that we are not burdened by huge deficits and tackling Iraq and our image around the world, those are, those are , that's  a big order for the first four years.

03:37

Music

04:06

Iraq

BOWDEN:  With Americans increasingly worried about being tipped into a recession, the economy has become the top issue in this election, but there is still enormous concern amongst voters about the war in Iraq.

HILLARY in debate:  I have said repeatedly

04:08

MSNBC  debate

that I will begin to bring our troops home as soon as I am president, because it is abundantly clear that President Bush does not intend to end the war while he is still president.

04:24

Iraq

BOWDEN:  Hillary Clinton voted for the war back in 2002 - Barack Obama says he's opposed it from the start.

04:36

MSNBC debate

OBAMA in debate:  But the real key for the next president is someone who has the credibility of not having been one of the co-authors of this engagement in Iraq. And I think I'm in a strong position to be able to say I thought this was a bad idea in the first place, we now have to fix it, we have to be as careful getting out as we were  careless getting in.

04:45

Stop Her Now - animator

Music

05:05

BOWDEN:  A war of a different kind is being waged by the anti-Hillary forces - the Hillary haters.

05:10

ANIMATOR:  The objective of this is to show Hillary in all of her different attitudes.

05:17

The Hillary Show
Stop Her Now website

Hillary Show on website:  It's the Hillary Show with special guest former president and active ladies man, wild Bill Clinton.

05:25

BOWDEN:  StopHerNow is a website aimed at doing just that, with a selection of anti-Hillary news, blogs and cartoons.

05:34

Hillary Show on website

BILL animation:  I've given motivational speeches all over the world.

HILLARY animation:  Let's not mention the $125 thousand we received for each of those.

05:42

Collins in meeting

MAN:   ‘Tonight's guest is my 2 timing but necessary husband - my man Bill. 

05:52

BOWDEN:   Texan millionaire Richard Collins is the founder of StopHerNow.

COLLINS:  Does he say anything?

05:57

BOWDEN:  He believes Hillary  Clinton as President would be a disaster for America.

BOWDEN:  Why go to all this trouble?

COLLINS:  Well I've been active in political affairs most of my life,

06:05

Collins. Super: 
Richard Collins
Founder, StopHerNow

and I think that my contribution for this particular election cycle was to try to define the real Hillary Clinton, She is trying to make herself really a centrist candidate, when she represents the ultimate liberal wing of American politics, which is more government, more taxes and worse times for everybody in my opinion.

06:13

The Hillary Show on website

HILLARY animation:  He has no experience, no record and no chance. He's my very, very, very good friend Obama Orama or whatever.

BOWDEN:  How much money you are spending on this ?

COLLINS:  We have spent about

06:37

Collins

400 thousand dollars so far and I expect that by the time the cycle is completed we will probably have spent three or four million.

06:50

Hillary - New Hampshire

HILLARY:  I am not running because I am a woman, I am running because I believe that I have the qualifications and experience to do the job that needs to be done starting in January 2009.

(applause)

06:58

BOWDEN:  The issue of experience has been a double-edged sword in the Clinton campaign.

07:10

At first, it was her main selling point. But just what experience? And how relevant is it to running the world's most powerful nation?

Bowden:  What about experience - that's obviously

07:19

Morris. Super:

Dick Morris
Former Clinton advisor

one of the things that she's pushing - that she has experience.

DICK MORRIS:  There is nothing more bankrupt than Hillary's expression of experience; I was in the White House, you know, the pastry chef was there too, he can't run for president saying he was experienced.

07:31

Wexler. Super:

Anne Wexler
Lobbyist

ANNE WEXLER:  In addition to her years in the White House, as I said, she has had eight years in the senate which is a heck of a lot more than Barack Obama has had and he's running for president.

07:42

Anne working/photo Anne and Bill

BOWDEN:  Lobbyist and former aide to presidents Carter and Clinton, Anne Wexler, gave Hillary Rodham a job in the early 1970s at the request of another young employee, Bill Clinton. They are firm friends.

ANNE WEXLER:  She has had an enormous amount of experience,

07:52

File footage. Young Bill and Hillary

not only in the work she did as the first lady of Arkansas, as a lawyer, as the president of the Children's Defence Fund, she has been an advocate for children's issues for 25 years. She served on the armed services committee as a senator and she has had a lot of foreign policy exposure,

08:08

Wexler

so I think she has had a lot of experience, in many ways more than a lot of the other candidates.

08:29

BOWDEN:  Do you think that when she was in the White House she had a lot to do with policy?

08:33

ANNE WEXLER: Just on some policy, not on all policy, but you know, I think the conversations between presidents and first ladies, especially with this president and this first lady, both of whom are really smart, is pretty sophisticated.

SALLY BEDELL SMITH: Her main role, was that of a behind the scenes

08:37

Bedell Smith. Super: 

Sally Bedell Smith
Author

consultant, the hidden hand, and in that capacity she did have a role in talking to her husband advising her husband - sometimes even insisting on things.

08:56

Sally set-up shot/

Book shots

BOWDEN:  Sally Bedell Smith interviewed dozens of Washington insiders for her book on the Clintons.

SALLY BEDELL SMITH: She knows the mechanics of the White House, how things function, where everything is, but in terms

09:10

Bedell Smith

of actual executive experience or leadership experience obviously the only area in which she had a chance to show that was in her

09:23

File Hillary

leading the health care reform effort, which did not end well and didn't show great leadership skills.

HILLARY:  Nothing is more important to our nation

09:34

than ensuring that every American has comprehensive health care benefits that can never be taken away.

ANNE WEXLER:  Neither the insurance industry or the pharmaceutical industry had any interest whatsoever in supporting it, but I think the atmosphere is different today, I think by and large,

09:45

Wexler

a large majority of the American public are ready for health care -- some kind of universal health care.

10:02

Tracking shots snowy Iowa

Music

10:09

BOWDEN:  We followed Hillary Clinton as she travelled across the snowy farmlands of Iowa and on to New Hampshire, campaigning in school gyms and town halls.

10:15

Hillary meeting and greeting

These are tightly controlled affairs, with few opportunities for the pesky media to get up close and personal.

10:28

A vigilant security detail is ever-present; standard procedure for a former first lady.

10:36

Hillary coughing

Such a gruelling schedule, with back to back events, day after day, is bound to take its toll.

HILLARY: I've been fighting this for a while...[coughing]

10:44

T1 New Hampshire

MAN in crowd:   Hang in there!

HILLARY:  I will, that's one thing you know about me, I hang in there!

(laughter/cheers)

11:00

Terry McAuliffe. Clinton campaign

TERRY MCAULIFFE:  Ladies and gentleman, the former president of the United States of America and the next president of the United States of America, Bill and Hillary Clinton!

11:12

BOWDEN:  Hillary Clinton has been joined on the campaign trail by her famous husband.

11:24

‘Capitol Steps'. Shakespearean Bill and Hillary

Grab ‘Bill: Romeo, Romeo, wherefore I am a Romeo.

11:31

BOWDEN:  The Clinton dramas have provided endless material for Washington's satirists.

11:36

Grab ‘Hillary':  M'Lord, I considereth running for the highest office in all of the land, but alas I fear my past doth haunt me like an ill wind was blown...

11:40

White House

BOWDEN:  But just what role would Bill Clinton play if his wife does become president?

11:51

Morris

DICK MORRIS:  Bill wants Hillary to get elected for one big reason; it will wipe out the stain of impeachment.

11:56

‘Capitol Steps'

Grab ‘Bill':   But for this one small indiscretion I hath paid, if only I had said ‘out damn spot.'

DICK MORRIS:  He will no longer be the second president to be

12:01

Morris. Super:

Dick Morris
Former Clinton adviser

impeached, but the first president in effect to have his wife elected for a third term for him. But it is not really going to be a third term for him,

12:13

Bill Clinton with dog

he will go around the globe, and be an ambassador and preside at charities, and I think he will be queen, not king. (laughs)

12:20

Bill and Hillary wave

BOWDEN:  But the idea of a re-run of the ‘buy one, get one free' deal raises serious concerns for Sally Bedell Smith.

SALLY BEDELL-SMITH:  We would be facing, not just a President Hillary Clinton and a first spouse, but we would have two presidents, but also by virtue of his quite outsize domineering dominating personality he could be a real

12:29

Bedell Smith. Super: 

Sally Bedell Smith
Author

intimidating force in the White House, so there are some inherent dangers in it.

12:52

Bill Clinton with Bush

ANNE WEXLER:  I think the biggest problem is the dynasty issue,

13:00

Wexler

and I think that will come up again and again, too many years of Bushes and Clintons.

13:06

Debate

OBAMA: Wait Hillary - you just spoke -

HILLARY:   I did not...

OBAMA: ...you just spoke for 2 minutes.

HILLARY:  I did not say anything about Ronald Regan. You said two things. You talked about admiring...

OBAMA: You spoke...

BOWDEN: The democratic alternative to that scenario is Barack Obama. During January, the duel between the cashed-up front-runners, became increasingly intense, and personal.

13:11

January 21 Debate

OBAMA:   ...because while I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at WalMart. I was fighting these fights.

13:29

HILLARY: And I was fighting against those ideas when you were practising law and representing your contributor Rezko in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.

13:38

BOWDEN:  Barack Obama promises the fresh approach Americans are yearning for; a country united to battle trouble at home and abroad.

13:54

Obama

OBAMA:  It was our message when we were down and it was our message when we were up and it must be catching on because in these last few weeks everyone is talking about change.

14:03

Obama meet and greet

BOWDEN:  With Barack Obama now a serious contender for the democratic nomination, voters saw an unexpected display from Hillary Clinton.

14:14

Hillary at microphone

HILLARY:  This is very personal for me, it is not just political, it is not just public, I see what is happening, we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game, they think it's like who's up or who's down. It is about our country.

14:27

HAROLD ICKES:  It is a challenge to be the first woman president. I mean the question is can, is she able to do it,

14:45

Ickes

is she competent, does she have the fortitude to do it, just generally can a woman do this. I think the debates - in the past 9 or so debates have really shown that Hillary can be Commander in Chief. I think there is nobody now who has watched her perform in the debates who have questions about whether she could be Commander in Chief.

14:51

Hillary meet and greet

ANNE WEXLER:  To have the first woman  president of the United States is a huge thing to begin with, but I think it will make a difference in the world.

15:15

Wexler. Super: 

Anne Wexler
Lobbyist

I think instantly our credibility will change, simply by virtue of not only having a woman president, but also the fact that she has an international reputation and a very good record and I think it will be easy for her to reach out to other leaders around the world.

15:24

Clinton/Obama shots

Music

15:43

BOWDEN:  So will the baby-boomer, former first lady triumph over the charismatic voice of a new generation?

While it won't be official until the convention in August, Democrats could well be pinning their hopes for a return to the White House on a Clinton who would follow a Bush who followed a Clinton who followed a Bush.

15:48

Music

16:09

Reporter: Tracy Bowden

Camera:  Dan Sweetapple,

               Tim Bates

Editor:     Woody Landay

16:16