To: American Spirit who wrote (19075 ) 12/13/2007 3:33:03 PM From: Tadsamillionaire Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224744 Hillary Clinton "campaign in panic mode" Harold Ickes, warned that a crowd of Arlington-based operatives descending on the Plains en masse might set off alarm bells, triggering "campaign in panic mode" stories, according to two people with inside knowledge of the Clinton operation. In a symbolic twist, they met halfway -- in Chicago, the back yard of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). The irony was not lost on increasingly worried members of the Clinton team, and it was in many ways emblematic of the challenges in turning around a lumbering national organization as events unfolded to the benefit of their less experienced, and nimbler, rival. On Thursday, Clinton heads into the final Democratic debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses with her earlier aura of inevitability gone. She is essentially tied with Obama and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) in Iowa, and her edge in New Hampshire is eroding as well. Former president Bill Clinton says he is preparing to reduce or curtail his business relationship with Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle's investment firm if his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, wins the Democratic presidential nomination. The move appears to be part of an effort to reduce the potential for conflict-of-interest controversies that could hamper Mrs. Clinton's presidential bid. Mr. Clinton for the past five years has been a senior adviser to Mr. Burkle's investment operation, Yucaipa Cos., and has held stakes in several Yucaipa investment funds. Some of those investments -- including one involving Yucaipa's acquisition of a car-hauling firm and another involving a troubled business deal with an Italian businessman -- have been controversial. CNN polling director Keating Holland said Clinton had lost a surprising amount of support from women but could rebound. To sway women voters, Clinton has begun campaigning with her daughter, Chelsea, and mother, Dorothy Rodham.