In July 2007 singer and actress Taryn Southern wrote and performed in an answer music video, "Hott4Hill", that earned national media attention for its sexually ambiguous declaration of support for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

Her response on the last issue brought the most criticism, with opponent Senator Christopher Dodd and Edwards immediately saying she had contradicted herself, an assessment echoed by Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News, who wrote that "In the course of two minutes, she gave two different answers while trying to give none at all.

"[56] This, combined with comments made by some supporters, including remarks by Clinton campaign manager Mark Penn against moderator Russert, led pundits to believe she was playing the "gender card".

[56] This in turn led to another round of criticism of Clinton, who had previously stressed her toughness as being one of her strengths as a potential president;[56] Obama pointed out that he had never complained that attacks on him were due to his being African-American.

We've had a bunch of debates and I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list,"[62] but defended her desire to give nuanced responses to questions and reiterated that gender was not an issue in terms of being subjected to political attacks.

[62] On November 12, 2007, the New York Times reported that "At two campaign events in Iowa this year, aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged audience members to ask her specific questions, a tactic that drew criticism from an opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination and led her yesterday to promise that it would not happen again."

"[65] On November 30, 2007, a man identified as 47-year-old Leeland Eisenberg,[66] armed with road flares strapped to his chest which he claimed were a bomb, entered a Clinton presidential campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire.

[70] That evening she flew to Rochester in order to meet with and comfort the hostages,[71] praise the law enforcement officials who handled the situation,[71] and vow not to change her campaign style due to the incident.

[74] Veteran political observers such as Bloomberg News' Al Hunt reported that "things are tense in Hillaryland these days,"[75] that the camps of Clinton and her husband were at odds,[75] and that the campaign's "plan A" of being the dominating, inevitable, establishment candidate was at risk of failing.

[79] By mid-month, prompted by continued high negative ratings in polls,[80] Clinton staged an explicit "likability" drive, using testimonials from friends and constituents on the campaign trail[80] and on a new "The Hillary I Know" website.

[94] On the day before the primary, press reports indicated that Hillary Clinton advisers were pessimistic about the immediate future, thinking it was unlikely she would be able to win either New Hampshire or South Carolina.

She said recently: 'I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I'd be on her wagon' [...] Angelou says that she has had many long telephone conversations with [Oprah] Winfrey on the subject of Obama versus Clinton.

But it is a contest ..."[125] Feminism and the civil rights movement had a long intertwined history in the United States, often working in concert but sometimes opposed;[124] while the bitter 19th century split between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass illustrated the latter, the unified opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas had exemplified the former.

Clinton supporters said they violated equal protection and one-person-one-vote requirements, and the Nevada State Education Association filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate the casino caucus sites.

[139] The issues of race that came to the forefront had no greater effect than where campaigning began for the January 26 South Carolina primary, the first to feature large African American participation in the Democratic electorate.

In particular, the possibility of one candidate gaining more pledged delegates from primary and caucus wins, but losing the nomination to the other due to the decisions of superdelegates, made some Democratic leaders uncomfortable.

[235] The most publicized charge which Clinton used against Obama preceding the Wisconsin primary were accusations that he plagiarized portions of his campaign's national co-chair Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

[262] Clinton personally echoed a theme her campaign had emphasized over the past days, that media coverage on her was much tougher than that on Obama, by making reference to a Saturday Night Live skit on the same point from the weekend before.

[264] Hillary Clinton met her match while appearing on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" to deliver the show's trademark opening line and provide an "editorial response" to a mock presidential debate.

A video of her arrival, released by CBS News, shows Clinton and her daughter Chelsea smiling and waving as they walked at a leisurely pace across the tarmac from a cargo plane, stopping to shake hands with Bosnia's acting president and listen while an 8-year-old girl read a poem.

[311] A February 8, 2008, article in the Portsmouth Herald stated, "Rochester physician Terry Bennett said he rented a city building to people who worked for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign – and skipped town without paying the bill.

[319][321] Obama advisor David Axelrod said the documents provided "direct, incontrovertible evidence" that the First Lady worked for NAFTA's passage and that "This is the political equivalent of consumer fraud.

David Gergen and Robert J. Shapiro said she had opposed NAFTA on the merits, as well as for getting too high political priority compared to the Clinton health care reform plan, an assessment that was echoed by biographers Sally Bedell Smith and Carl Bernstein.

[334] Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would both statistically tie Republican John McCain in a general election matchup, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released March 18, 2008.

Campaigning in the week of April 14, 2008, included a tough debate between Obama and Clinton, who pounded her rival for his recent remark that decades of economic decline had left some rural voters "bitter" and clinging to religion and guns.

[356] Clinton had hoped to score a solid win in Indiana and finish a close second in North Carolina,[357] especially after Obama had endured a difficult period in his campaign due to continuing effects from the Jeremiah Wright controversy.

There's lots of speculation about why it is.Clinton's mention of the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in the context of her rationale for staying in the race drew a quick storm of national attention, as well as strong criticism from the Obama campaign.

"[397] On June 7, 2008, in a speech before her gathered supporters at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.,[398][399] Clinton officially announced that she was suspending her campaign and was fully endorsing Barack Obama.

[399] Clinton said: The way to continue our fight now – to accomplish the goals for which we stand – is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States.

[407] Ultimately, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden over Clinton and a number of other rumored candidates, including Texas Rep. Chet Edwards, Kansas Gov.