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Progressives have adopted a wait and see attitude toward Hillary Rodham Clintons presidential campaign after the former secretary of states latest attempt to transform herself into a populist champion ended with a thud.

Mrs. Clinton recently was forced to backtrack after she declared that businesses dont create jobs in America a comment widely interpreted as an effort to tap into the excitement around Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has cultivated a cult following on the left with her little guy vs. Wall Street pitch.

Mrs. Clintons explanation she now says she was merely criticizing tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas did little to blunt attacks from Republicans, but it also raised fresh questions about whether the former first lady is capable of waving the banner for progressive populism or if shell wilt at the first sign of a backlash.

Analysts say the Democratic presidential primary largely will hinge on which candidate best embodies the populist sentiment bubbling to the surface in American politics and captures the passion of voters who believe the system is rigged against the 99 percent.

At this point, Mrs. Warren, who recently seemed to crack the door to a White House bid, clearly delivers that message better than anyone. But if she declines to run for president, the jury is out on whether Mrs. Clinton can effectively carry the mantle.

Folks are wary of her closeness to Wall Street Theres a wait-and-see approach, said Neil Sroka, communications director at the liberal PAC Democracy for America. She said months ago that if you were going to run for president you have to run on an idea, that is an essential quality of running. If she decides that idea is the fight against income inequality, then I have no doubt she will run a strong, compelling, forceful campaign on it. But she has to make that decision.

While Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, undoubtedly are part of the Democratic Party establishment, the former first lady seems to have decided that a populist platform is key to capturing her partys nomination.

On the stump in Massachusetts on Oct. 24, Mrs. Clinton struck a Warren-esque note with a sharp critique of the business community, perhaps an attempt to distance herself from Wall Street.

Dont let anybody tell you that, you know, its corporations and businesses that create jobs, she said at a rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley.

Within days, however, she backtracked and claimed she shorthanded her position.

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Hillary Clinton's populist credibility questioned after Elizabeth Warren mimic

Alison Lundergan Grimes campaigns with the former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally at Northern Kentucky University on Saturday. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Around 1,200 people braved cold temperatures and northern Kentuckys first snowfall of the season on Saturday morning to see former secretary of state and presumptive 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton implore them to help elect Alison Lundergan Grimes to the US senate.

In the 7,000-person city of Highland Heights, thats an impressive turnout though, in an arena that seats almost 10,000, the two ralliers who expressed surprise at the small size of the crowd werent utterly mistaken either.

But, as Grimes pointed out to both the morning audience and an afternoon one at Transylvania University in Lexington, her opponent, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, allegedly has to pay people to show up to his rallies. (Later on Saturday, a fire marshal shut down the entrance to the 1,050-seat auditorium in Lexington shortly before Grimes and Clinton arrived, and several of those barred from the auditorium waited more than an hour in strong winds and temperatures barely above freezing to catch a glimpse of the two leaving.)

For a candidate whose latest polls showed her at a significant deficit, that 2,200 people turned out at the two campaign stops on a freezing cold Saturday was a good showing. Many of the attendees told the Guardian that they were there to see and show support for Grimes, not to simply get a glimpse at as Clinton was constantly referred to from the stage the next president of the United States.

Clinton, though, was not without her allure especially for a handful of attendees who werent Kentucky voters. In Highland Heights, Tasha Dennis, who was born in Kentucky but now teaches in Michigan, came with her sister. Ive always loved Hillary, she said, but hoped Grimes would be elected because theres not enough females in Congress. Christi Elliott, a local social worker attending the same rally with her 16-year-old daughter, said: I love Hillary. I love what she did with the health insurance. She actually started it. Elliott said she was voting for Grimes because she was tired of Mitch.

On stage, Grimess lead-ins included current Kentucky attorney general, Jack Conway, the former and only female governor Martha Layne Collins (who, judging by the standing ovations, remains very popular) and the sitting governor, Steve Bashear, all of whom worked the crowd up for the crescendo Grimes presented in her stump-speech-cum-Hillary-introduction.

Grimess speeches didnt lack for jabs at her opponent: they were peppered with references to McConnells June speech at a conference hosted by the Koch brothers in which he promised no more votes on raising the minimum wage, extending unemployment or student loan reforms and called the passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill the worst day of my political life and his comment in July that equal pay for women was actually preferential treatment. There were a couple of oblique references to the McConnell election violation notice mailers over which the campaign has filed suit.

McConnells seniority, Grimes said in the morning, might be worth something if he werent up for sale to the highest bidder. In the afternoon, she added to that: He wants a bigger office. I want you to get a bigger paycheck.

Grimess pointed on-stage attacks on McConnell, which were tempered with emotional appeals to her audiences that she cared more about them as Kentuckians than her opponent, struck the right note with crowds that were decidedly ready to, as one man shouted in Lexington, Ditch Mitch. Henrietta Graves said she came to the Highland Heights rally (and wore several anti-McConnell buttons) because It is so very important to see Alison beat Mitch. McConnell, she explained gets nothing done: hes an obstructionist and we need to keep the Democratic majority because the supreme court judges are the most important thing in our government, and Republican appointees of late are an anachronism.

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Hillary Clinton sprinkles her stardust on Grimes campaign in Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The fierce fight to win Kentucky's Senate seat carries with it some lingering intrigue: the complicated relationship between a potential future president and a potential future majority leader.

In one corner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is running his campaign squarely against President Obama -- whose favorability remains below 30 percent here -- instead of his youthful, energetic challenger, Kentucky secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes (D). In the other corner is the Grimes campaign, which has practically ignored Obama's existence -- as a stand-in for the actual nominee used the Clinton family as the de facto challenger to McConnell.

That dynamic reached a crescendo Saturday afternoon inside a packed theater on Transylvania University's campus here, when former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton delivered a 22-minute rallying cry for the 35-year-old challenger -- the seventh time she or former president Bill Clinton have appeared in Kentucky for Grimes.

Clinton accused Republicans of running a campaign of "fear," suggesting McConnell's campaign had been endlessly negative in an attempt to smear the challenger. McConnell aides "just hope that enough of it sticks," she said.

But not once did she ever mention the Senate minority leader by name.

"If Alison's opponent wanted to run against the president, he had the chance in 2012," Clinton said, to cheers from more than 1,200 Democrats packed inside the event.

It was a delicate bit of diplomacy for Clinton, honed both in her four years at Foggy Bottom and her eight years serving alongside McConnell in the Senate. Local observers say that former president Bill Clinton has no hesitation in invoking McConnell by name -- but Hillary Clinton seems to avoid it.

This election, it's all about which party will control the Senate. PostTV visited four battleground states to ask voters there about the issues driving them to the ballot box for the midterms. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)

It's likely, at least in part, senatorial courtesy -- but also it could help smooth relations between the two should Hillary Clinton run for, and win, the presidency in 2016. Polls show McConnell with a small-but-steady lead, and Republicans are very close to securing the six seats necessary to win the Senate majority in Tuesday's elections.

That would make McConnell the majority leader, a post he might still hold if and when Clinton is sworn in as president in January 2017. The Republicans will face a difficult electoral map for the Senate in 2016, so GOP strategists are hoping for a big sweep that will provide a cushion for seats they could lose two years from now and maintain the majority.

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Hillary Clinton and Mitch McConnell: Its complicated

Hillary Clinton Rep Sean Maloney
Crowd cheers as Hillary enters Rep Sean Maloney event.

By: Sheila Kaplan

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Hillary Clinton & Rep Sean Maloney - Video

Ami Bera stumps for Hillary Clinton
Rep. Ami Bera appeared at a get-out-the-vote rally at UC Davis on Oct. 29.

By: The Sacramento Bee

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Ami Bera stumps for Hillary Clinton - Video