... Clinton was the first of the candidates in either party to realize how big a problem heroin and prescription drug abuse has become in New Hampshire, claiming so many young lives. It was at a town meeting in August in Keene where Clinton became aware of the extent of the problem when almost every hand went up at a substance abuse forum signaling a personal experience.

She researched the issue and followed up, says Joe Grandmaison, the former Democratic Party state chair in New Hampshire who crowned Bill Clinton the “comeback kid” after his second-place finish in the 1992 primary. An unabashed Hillary fan, Grandmaison observed that her diligence on the addiction issue recalled the “listening tour” Clinton took when she first ran for the Senate from New York in 2000. “You don’t have to be terribly cynical to think it is mostly a public relations tour, but Hillary demonstrated just the opposite,” Grandmaison told me. “Helping people in this way is who she is, and it’s better politics than normal because it cuts right through the cynicism.”
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In an election cycle that has been anything but conventional, Clinton is running a textbook campaign, methodically laying out her proposals from what she would do about ISIS and terrorism, down to her views on GMO’s (genetically modified organisms in our food). Clinton was asked about GMO’s at a recent Baltimore fundraiser. A donor who was there told Grandmaison that he thought that would stump her, but she has a three-point program.

It’s almost comical how prepared Clinton is, especially when compared to Trump, who offers very little in the way of conventional policies. “She has a different electorate than he does,” says Matt Bennett with Third Way, a centrist Democratic group. While the Republicans are focused on style and rhetoric, the race between Clinton and Sanders is much more substantive, “and she’s got to make clear what she stands for. And because she is the favorite to become president, she is acting like a president.”

With five weeks to go until the caucuses, the yeoman’s work of presidential politicking is now being undertaken in earnest. Most Iowans have yet to make up their minds about whom to support for president, so candidates and their state teams must now solidify their cases. But who has the best Iowa ground game?

Four metrics help get at that answer: field offices, paid staff, events held and time spent in the state (I made efforts to cross-check numbers with news reports and campaigns, though some declined to comment on their staffing and organization):
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But the numbers only take you so far in campaigning. It’s not just how many staff members you have, it’s what they’re doing.

Cruz, the current leader of the Republican field in the state, has built substantial buzz around his Iowa operation. He’s locked down key religious conservative endorsements from Steve King and Bob Vander Plaats (Iowa Evangelicals are a powerful force in the GOP caucus), fostered a “99 pastors” strategy (one for each county), and spent considerable cowboy boots-on-ground time in the state: 91 events over 41 days.

Across a wide spectrum of traditionally male-dominated professions, women are becoming leaders with increasing frequency. But they haven’t yet been able to shed the social penalties that accompany climbing up the ladder. The same behaviors that are required of women to achieve professional success are also seen by others as "difficult," "abrasive," and "selfish." In a word, unlikable.

In studies where participants are asked to examine a job candidate, where the only variable changed is the candidate’s gender, they typically rate female candidates as equally competent to their male counterparts, but they’re perceived as much colder.

Behind this phenomenon is what researchers call a "backlash." Women who become managers in male-dominated fields are often the subject of intense negativity – employees tend to like and respect them less than male bosses.

That’s because when women act assertively or competitively, or when they appear emotionally restrained, these women are flouting gender norms about how they should behave. Researchers have found that this dislike comes from the perception that these women aren’t nurturing or cooperative.