Hillary Clinton is driving to Iowa! OK, she’s going to take a couple of buddies along to sing songs and play license plate games, but she clearly wants the world to know she’s just a regular, road-tripping kind of gal. (Note to Midwesterners: If there’s an unusually long line at your favorite rest stop, be on the lookout for a perfectly coifed but oh-so-casual woman being trailed by a few dozen ornery reporters.) 

It’s too early to know what other soft-focus PR tricks Clinton plans to smear over her hard-edged rep. But it’s fair to predict that this won’t be the last time she borrows from the playbook of one of her political idols, another road warrior by the name of Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Clinton has long capitalized on her affinity with Mrs. Roosevelt, both as a progressive political force and as a woman who wouldn’t wallow in her husband’s considerable shadow. There are less savory, if no less obvious, parallels too, especially their having to endure the humiliation of being married to men who cheated on them — as well as the painful expediency of looking the other way for the sake of the family business.