Hillary Clinton isn’t buckling under mounting pressure to abandon the comfort of her presidential campaign’s small, carefully-choreographed events to answer lingering and politically sensitive questions.
But the clock on the former secretary of state’s ramp-up into full campaign mode — with the accountability that comes with regular interaction with the press — is ticking louder by the day.
Even Iowa Democrats who are friendliest to Clinton’s cause appear to have set it to expire this summer.
By then, they say, she’ll need to have shifted her campaign into a higher gear by rolling out major policy proposals, fielding questions and allowing more voters access to her through larger rallies.
“People are going to start paying attention here pretty soon — it’s just kind of in the air out here,” said Iowa AFL-CIO President Ken Sagar.
Others aren’t as forgiving. It’s been three weeks since Clinton publicly answered questions from anyone who her campaign hadn’t invited to an event — prompting more coverage of what she isn’t doing than what she is saying, and triggering editorials like one that ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“If she can’t handle a tough question from a journalist, how can she handle the duties of the highest office in the land?” the newspaper, in the key early-voting state of Nevada, opined Monday.
Questions about Clinton’s past are dogging her quest for a fresh start headed into 2016, and voters appear to be taking notice. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found only a quarter of registered voters said they viewed her as honest and straightforward, down 13 percentage points from last summer.
The Democratic front-runner in the 2016 race for the White House returned to Iowa this week for her campaign’s second swing through the state that casts the first ballots in the presidential nominating process. On Tuesday she’ll visit Bike Tech, a small business in Cedar Falls, where she’s set to lead another in her series of small roundtable discussions.
The small roundtable events, Clinton has said, have offered her insight into issues like the drug scourge, a rash of young suicides and mental health challenges that she said she now realizes must be part of her campaign.
But she has left most of them without taking any questions from the journalists tracking her campaign. She also hasn’t sat for an interview with a major news outlet since officially entering the race.
Such a closed-off approach from the press could help Clinton avoid the mistakes of her unsuccessful 2008 campaign, which struggled at times to stay on course in a bitter battle with then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards.
It has also, though, increasingly made her a target for Republicans who, needing attention to fuel their candidacies in a much more competitive nominating battle, have laid into Clinton during their much more frequent media appearances.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush estimated over the weekend that he’s answered 800 to 900 questions — multitudes more than the 13, by the most generous counting, that Clinton has answered since launching her campaign.
“For those that really follow TV, 33,000 minutes is two times the number of ‘Simpson’s’ shows that existed in the [past] 25 years,” Bush said.
Clinton still hasn’t fielded questions herself about her family foundation’s acceptance of foreign donations or the $30 million she and Bill Clinton made giving paid speeches since the beginning of 2014. And on Monday evening, another issue popped up in a New York Times report: Her relationship with long-time ally Sidney Blumenthal, who was offering Clinton advice on Libya while she was secretary of state at the same time he did business with clients that operated in Libya.
Democrats are clamoring, meanwhile, for Clinton to tip the scales in a battle over international trade that has pitted President Barack Obama against firebrand liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren — the champion of a coalition that resembles some of the forces that lifted Obama past Clinton in their 2008 battle.
“I think she should take a good look at it, and I think it would be very helpful,” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
For as much criticism as Clinton’s small-ball approach has met, it’s also allowed her to avoid the errors of GOP contenders like Bush, who needed at least four tries at answering a question about Iraq last week, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, whose testy interviews with female journalists led to a round of inquiries about whether he has a personal problem with being challenged by women.
Clinton’s remarks at a Mason City house party on Monday, where she mingled with guests for about an hour, were laced with implicit criticism of her Republican rivals. She mentioned none by name, but made a pointed reference to her experience.
“I am going into this race with my eyes wide open about how hard it is to be president of the United States. I have a little experience about that and I have to tell you, I find it very reassuring because I do have that experience to know what is possible and how best to proceed, Clinton said.
“But I also know that we are living in an incredibly complicated time in American history,” she said, winding up for a jab at the entire GOP field of White House aspirants.
“It is not a time for easy answers, for glib answers, or one liners, or applause lines,” Clinton said. “Those are all great, that is part of campaigning, but at the end of the day, we need a president who has both the experience and the understanding to deal with the complexity of the problems we face.”
So far, Clinton has visited Iowa twice, Nevada and New Hampshire, where she’ll return for her second visit later this week. She’ll complete the superfecta of early-voting states by swinging through South Carolina next week.
Once those visits are concluded, Clinton is expected to change gears, beginning to hold large rallies and deliver major policy speeches.
In Iowa, Democratic insiders and activists say they’d like to see her campaign more actively — but unlike 2008, there isn’t a strong challenger within Clinton’s party to force the sorts of multiple daily packed-high-school-gymnasium events that candidates then needed to showcase the strength of their support.
Instead, the lack of a well-known and well-financed challenger has allowed Clinton to take a more humble approach — doing as much listening as talking — that showcases humility in what could easily be viewed as a Democratic coronation. It also affords her to tap into one of her greatest strengths as a candidate: a lifetime of wisdom on the wonkiest of subjects that pop up in question-and-answer sessions with those invited to her roundtables.
Sagar, the labor leader, said Clinton’s low-key approach has been a welcome reprieve for a state fresh off a bruising Senate race, and already seeing an influx of Republican contenders in that party’s packed presidential field.
“Everyone is burned out, honestly, from having these large events constantly,” said Molly Monk, a soon-to-be Simpson College senior and student government president.
Still, Monk, who’s also seen former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley in person but said she wants to volunteer to help Clinton, said college students are trying to decide whether Clinton is the kind of candidate they can actively embrace and work for, or one who they’ll support for lack of alternatives.
And Monk, whose Irish Catholic family is filled with U.S. Army veterans, already has several issues she’s waiting for Clinton to address — including student debt and particularly foreign policy.
“I’m willing to wait like two months or so,” Monk said.
Others said they expect a similar timeframe for a Clinton ramp-up.
“A couple months from now — about when we’re going back to school — that’s when people are going to start to say, ‘All right, it’s time to tell us what you’re really going to do,’” said Anna Schierenbeck, a Grinnell College sophomore and one of the leaders of the College and Young Democrats of Iowa.
“I think that for now, she’s doing a good job channeling this excitement and being really folksy,” she said.
“I do think that as we go forward, it’s going to be important for her to do the more traditional rallies,” Schierenbeck said. “Young people love yelling and screaming about a candidate, and that’s going to be important.”
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
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Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, 2016. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was the first woman to lead the presidential ticket of a major political party.
Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight
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Before marrying Bill Clinton, she was Hillary Rodham. Here she attends Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her commencement speech at Wellesley's graduation ceremony in 1969 attracted national attention. After graduating, she attended Yale Law School.
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Rodham was a lawyer on the House Judiciary Committee, whose work led to impeachment charges against President Richard Nixon in 1974.
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In 1975, Rodham married Bill Clinton, whom she met at Yale Law School. He became the governor of Arkansas in 1978. In 1980, the couple had a daughter, Chelsea.
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Arkansas' first lady, now using the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, wears her inaugural ball gown in 1985.
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The Clintons celebrate Bill's inauguration in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991. He was governor from 1983 to 1992, when he was elected President.
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Bill Clinton comforts his wife on the set of "60 Minutes" after a stage light broke loose from the ceiling and knocked her down in January 1992.
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In June 1992, Clinton uses a sewing machine designed to eliminate back and wrist strain. She had just given a speech at a convention of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
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During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton jokes with her husband's running mate, Al Gore, and Gore's wife, Tipper, aboard a campaign bus.
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Clinton accompanies her husband as he takes the oath of office in January 1993.
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The Clintons share a laugh on Capitol Hill in 1993.
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Clinton unveils the renovated Blue Room of the White House in 1995.
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Clinton waves to the media in January 1996 as she arrives for an appearance before a grand jury in Washington. The first lady was subpoenaed to testify as a witness in the investigation of the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. The Clintons' business investment was investigated, but ultimately they were cleared of any wrongdoing.
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The Clintons hug as Bill is sworn in for a second term as President.
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The first lady holds up a Grammy Award, which she won for her audiobook "It Takes a Village" in 1997.
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The Clintons dance on a beach in the U.S. Virgin Islands in January 1998. Later that month, Bill Clinton was accused of having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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Clinton looks on as her husband discusses the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 26, 1998. Clinton declared, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." In August of that year, Clinton testified before a grand jury and admitted to having "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lewinsky, but he said it did not constitute sexual relations because they had not had intercourse. He was impeached in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
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The first family walks with their dog, Buddy, as they leave the White House for a vacation in August 1998.
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President Clinton makes a statement at the White House in December 1998, thanking members of Congress who voted against his impeachment. The Senate trial ended with an acquittal in February 1999.
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Clinton announces in February 2000 that she will seek the U.S. Senate seat in New York. She was elected later that year.
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Clinton makes her first appearance on the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
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Sen. Clinton comforts Maren Sarkarat, a woman who lost her husband in the September 11 terrorist attacks, during a ground-zero memorial in October 2001.
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Clinton holds up her book "Living History" before a signing in Auburn Hills, Michigan, in 2003.
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Clinton and another presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, applaud at the start of a Democratic debate in 2007.
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Obama and Clinton talk on the plane on their way to a rally in Unity, New Hampshire, in June 2008. She had recently ended her presidential campaign and endorsed Obama.
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Obama is flanked by Clinton and Vice President-elect Joe Biden at a news conference in Chicago in December 2008. He had designated Clinton to be his secretary of state.
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Clinton, as secretary of state, greets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a meeting just outside Moscow in March 2010.
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The Clintons pose on the day of Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in July 2010.
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In this photo provided by the White House, Obama, Clinton, Biden and other members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
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Clinton checks her Blackberry inside a military plane after leaving Malta in October 2011. In 2015, The New York Times reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. The account, fed through its own server, raises security and preservation concerns. Clinton later said she used a private domain out of "convenience," but admits in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails.
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Clinton arrives for a group photo before a forum with the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2012. The forum was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Obama and Clinton bow during the transfer-of-remains ceremony marking the return of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who were killed in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012.
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Clinton ducks after a woman threw a shoe at her while she was delivering remarks at a recycling trade conference in Las Vegas in 2014.
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Clinton, now running for President again, performs with Jimmy Fallon during a "Tonight Show" skit in September 2015.
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Clinton testifies about the Benghazi attack during a House committee meeting in October 2015. "I would imagine I have thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she said during the 11-hour hearing. "I have lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done." Months earlier, Clinton had acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" as cited by an Accountability Review Board, and she said that her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
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U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders shares a lighthearted moment with Clinton during a Democratic presidential debate in October 2015. It came after Sanders gave his take on the Clinton email scandal. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails. Let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
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Clinton is reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally in Alexandria, Virginia, in October 2015.
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Clinton walks on her stage with her family after winning the New York primary in April.
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After Clinton became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, this photo was posted to her official Twitter account. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want -- even president," Clinton said. "Tonight is for you."
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Obama hugs Clinton after he gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The president said Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to her stint as his secretary of state.
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Clinton arrives at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony in New York on September 11. Clinton, who was diagnosed with pneumonia two days before, left early after feeling ill. A video appeared to show her stumble as Secret Service agents helped her into a van.
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Clinton addresses a campaign rally in Cleveland on November 6, two days before Election Day. She went on to lose Ohio -- and the election -- to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
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After conceding the presidency to Trump in a phone call earlier, Clinton addresses supporters and campaign workers in New York on Wednesday, November 9. Her defeat marked a stunning end to a campaign that appeared poised to make her the first woman elected US president.