DES MOINES, Iowa -- As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton climbed onto a makeshift stage at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and embraced motor fuel from corn as a key to America's future, she completed a turnabout from being an ethanol opponent, a position she held only two years ago.
"Now, Iowa is way ahead of the rest of the country," the presidential hopeful told listeners at a July 2 campaign stop. "What you've done with ethanol ... you're setting the pace."
Political observers view her about-face as a political necessity, saying Iowa's first-in-the-nation's caucuses -- in which residents of the country's biggest corn-producing state vote their choice for presidential nominee -- makes it politically risky to avoid kneeling at the altar of ethanol-from-corn.
"John McCain tried that, and not too successfully," said former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, referring to the Arizona senator's opposition to ethanol during his unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
Clinton's turnabout puts her at odds with critics of converting food to fuel, who say diverting grain into the nation's gasoline tanks is a costly boon to the agricultural industry, one that wastes energy, degrades the environment, depends on government subsidies and increases the price of meat, milk, eggs and other foods derived from corn-fed livestock.
"It looks like the high cost of corn is here to stay, which means higher costs for chickens and other food animals," said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council. "It really has had a significant impact."
More