Clinton, in Iowa, Vows to ‘Renew the Promise of America’

DES MOINES, Jan. 27 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton began her presidential campaign road show on Saturday by making an appeal along gender lines, telling a crowd of 2,800 Iowans that she faced a “double standard” as a female candidate, yet hoped voters would look past “stories about my clothes and hair” to help her make history.

Yet Mrs. Clinton also portrayed herself as something of a bare-knuckled fighter on her inaugural trip as a candidate to Iowa, the first of the first-in-the-nation nominating caucuses. Speaking to another group of Democrats on Saturday, she said she had learned from the failed 2004 presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts that a candidate always had to respond to attacks.

“When you’re attacked, you have to deck your opponents,” Mrs. Clinton said to some laughter and applause. “You can count on me to stand my ground and fight back.”

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