Hillary Clinton's journey to Iowa: 1,000-mile road trip in a 'Scooby-Doo' van

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/13/hillary-clinton-iowa-road-trip-scooby-doo-van

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Hillary Clinton has begun her presidential campaign with a 1,000-mile road trip intended to counter her reputation as a distant and often inaccessible political candidate.

The Democratic frontrunner departed from her home in Chappaqua, New York, in a three-vehicle convoy on Sunday, around the time her campaign was officially launched on social media.

She will arrive on Tuesday in the small, rural town of Monticello, in Iowa, the first state to choose its Democratic and Republican nominees in January 2016, and the place where her presidential ambitions crumbled seven years ago when she finished third to Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Related: Hillary Clinton begins presidential push with Iowa visit

The unorthodox start to the Clinton campaign surprised the political establishment, and is being spun by her campaign as an idea that the candidate casually came up with herself.

“When Hillary first told us that she was ready to hit the road for Iowa, we literally looked at her and said, ‘Seriously?’ And she said, ‘Seriously,’” her aide, Huma Abedin, told Clinton supporters in a conference call on Sunday night. “This was her idea, and she’s been really excited about it since she came up with it.”

Abedin, one of two aides and a clutch of secret service personnel travelling with the former secretary of state, said Clinton met a family from Michigan when they stopped at a gas station in Pennsylvania.

Earlier, Clinton had tweeted a picture of her standing next to a family: “Road trip! Loaded the van & set off for IA. Met a great family when we stopped this afternoon. Many more to come.”

Road trip! Loaded the van & set off for IA. Met a great family when we stopped this afternoon. Many more to come. -H pic.twitter.com/5Va7zeR8RP

“I think it’s safe to say she surprised quite a few people who had just happened to stop for gas at the same time she did,” Abedin said.

The campaign also leaked other snippets intended to humanise the trip, including that the former first lady had nicknamed the van “Scooby” because it resembles the vehicle from the cartoon.

It is unclear whether the folksy narrative will immediately alter perceptions of Clinton, who has been at the top of the political elite, as first lady, senator and secretary of state, for more than two decades.

There is also a risk that Clinton, the most recognisable woman in politics, will struggle to have the kind of spontaneous interactions with voters her campaign hopes the road trip will enable.

The world’s media are almost certain to be following Clinton as she travels through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois over the next 24 hours and even some of her advisers reportedly confess there is a chance of a media circus, with helicopters hovering overhead.

Clinton’s current location and planned itinerary is unknown. However, she is scheduled to arrive at a community college in Monticello shortly after 1pm on Tuesday, for what the first in what her campaign is billing as a series of “conversations with everyday Iowans”.

The following day she will meet local businessmen in a suburb of Des Moines. Clinton’s defeat in Iowa in 2008 was largely put down to her inability to connect with caucus-goers. She was seen as aloof and detached, and later criticised for conducting a tour of the state in a chartered helicopter.