Clinton's tactics, potential to get rural votes is questioned by Edwards and folks in upstate N.Y.

In recent days, leading Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has seen her rural strategy draw criticism from rival John Edwards and others who question whether she really can court and win rural votes, which President Bush rode to victory twice.

Last week, Jake Tapper of ABC News reported that the Clinton campaign would be holding a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch in a place far from the rural voters Clinton is seeking — the office of a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. The event will be held at the offices of Troutman Sanders Public Affairs, which lobbies on behalf of Monsanto, the multinational agri-biotech conglomerate that has plenty of critics of its own. Edwards' communications director charged that Clinton was "tailoring her rural policy to reflect the needs of big agribusiness." The Clinton campaign pointed out Edwards' own ties to Monsanto, reports The Boston Globe. An aide to Edwards during the 2004 presidential election was a registered lobbyist for Monsanto, Scott Helman writes.

In Sunday's edition of The Washington Post, Alec MacGillis examined whether Clinton's success with voters in upstate New York in her Senate races will translate to other rural areas in this presidential election. For many in those parts of New York, and for some analysts, the answer tends toward no. "Clinton is invoking the inroads she has made Upstate as a kind of talisman against worries in her own party that she is too polarizing to win next fall," MacGillis writes. "But seen from ground level in this swath of rolling farmland and small towns between Buffalo and Rochester, it is unclear whether that argument holds up." (Read more)