Clinton bites back ... Tancredo gets gory ... Romney speech

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CLEAR LAKE, Iowa -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is baring her "fangs."But that wasn't somebody's insult.It was the approving reaction from one of the New York senator's fans as the Democratic presidential front-runner ripped into rival Sen. Barack Obama's character this week -- first accusing the Illinois lawmaker of skirting campaign-finance laws and then charging him with dodging votes on politically sensitive issues.The attacks drew applause from Clinton supporters during her appearance at the legendary Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake -- site of the last concert for Buddy Holly and friends before their plane crashed outside of town in February 1959.They say she has to go on offense against Obama and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina with now just one month until the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3."She has really run this campaign like a superwoman," said Mary Jane Porter, 75, a retired teacher from Mason City, Iowa. "The superwoman now is showing her fangs and her nails, which she needs to do."While Clinton enjoys a double-digit lead in national polls, Iowa is considered a three-way, statistical dead heat. One weekend poll showed Obama slipping ahead slightly, and two other polls released Monday found Clinton in the lead."She's gotta start showing (that) the mother lioness is gonna take care of her own," Porter said, standing on a chair as Holly music played during Clinton's exit. "She's gonna show her fangs, show her aggressiveness and assertiveness and do it like a lady to protect her dream, and her view ... the dream for America."X...X...XClinton's openly combative posture in recent days is a sharp departure from her deferential style for most of this year, when she often ignored some of her rivals' direct challenges or shrugged them off with dismissive laughter during televised debates.Obama gave reporters his own theory for the style change."I think that folks from some of the other campaigns are reading the polls, starting to get stressed and issuing a whole range of outlandish accusations," Obama told reporters in Des Moines.How picky are Clinton and Obama getting with each other? Very.At a press conference, defending his leadership PAC, Obama said: "I haven't been planning to run for president for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for it.""Oh really?" Clinton's campaign quickly replied in a background document circulated to reporters.It listed quotations from his former law-school classmate and brother-in-law suggesting he had talked about running for president for decades.But the clincher was a real blast from the past -- a passage from an Associated Press story from earlier this year:"Iis Darmawan, 63, Sen. Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly-haired child who quickly picked up the local language and hard math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want to Become President,' the teacher said."X...X...XMeanwhile, a Republican long shot, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, was drawing blood -- using gruesome photographs of gangland-style executions in his newest ad.The spot unveiled Tuesday, titled "Consequences," focuses on "vicious Central American gangs now on U.S. soil" -- a result he blames on "gutless politicians" who refuse to crack down on illegal immigration.After flashing images of dead bodies lined up after gang attacks, the screen text read:"Pushing Drugs. Raping Kids. Destroying Lives. The Consequences of Open Borders ..."Nothing subtle there -- and this type of ad is becoming the hallmark of the campaign by Tancredo, who ranked seventh with 6 percent in the last Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa caucus participants.The new ad is proving to be no less controversial than his previous ad, which included more gruesome pictures and sounds of an exploding bomb at the end. That first one was dismissed by some as "pandering at its worst," "indecent exposure" or a scare tactic being used by a candidate who's going nowhere.X...X...XIn most presidential debates, outspoken long-shot candidates are shuffled to the far edges of the spotlight -- if they're even allowed on stage at all.Not so at Tuesday's Democratic debate on NPR, where the maverick Mike Gravel got an equal chance to compete to win Carl Kassel's voice on his home answering machine. (That's a joke for fellow fans of the Saturday-morning NPR news quiz, "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!")In fact, the luck of the draw allowed the former Alaska senator to speak second on the first question -- right after Clinton.He used his time to inspire a collective sigh of relief in the media room, when he gave this definitively upbeat assessment of Iran: "Iran's not a problem, never has been, never will be."We caught up with him in a very lonely "spin zone" after the debate to ask what he thought of the format."I liked the format. There's a natural structure against me. They're sitting members of Congress so they can talk about what they're doing right now. That has a plus and a minus, because what they're doing right now clearly isn't enough to solve the problems that are going on..."We tried to ask Gravel a few more questions. But then he was interrupted by a fan who wanted a photo op.It was Mo Rocca, a "Tonight Show" political correspondent (and frequent "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" contestant). Sadly, Gravel didn't recognize him or remember their recent interview until Rocca mentioned his late-night boss: Jay Leno.X...X...XReviews are still pouring in for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's long-awaited speech discussing the role of religion in politics and his Mormon faith.The former Massachusetts governor barely noted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the speech, but he said emphatically:"No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."The speech reminded us of something he told us during a rolling interview in August: "People don't decide who to vote for based on where they go to church."If nothing else, he was addressing the issue on his own terms, as opposed to those of Iowa radio-talk-show host Jan Mickelson, who had an infamous, off-air spat with Romney over religion in August.The videotape of that spat is worth watching and can be found by searching YouTube.com for the words "Romney" and "Mickelson."Here's how Mickelson once described the awkward, must-see showdown."It's a slow-motion train wreck. You know you're off the rail. You know you're going to crash. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't get out of your seat. And the more you try to recover, the worse it gets. I kept throwing him a life preserver. He kept tossing me an anchor. And before we were done, neither of us looked very good at it."(Read daily dispatches from the "Back Roads to the White House" at http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/sprengelmeyer/.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)