--- title: Iowa Caucus: A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies description: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both touched down for rallies in Dubuque on Friday afternoon. canonical: https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-30T13:12:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:38.332Z article:section: Politics og:title: A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies og:description: Sanders and Clinton circle each other in Iowa. og:url: https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf58dc615bd1055c/69887b620a4a22f7bf9c8267/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: sanders-clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies twitter:description: Sanders and Clinton circle each other in Iowa. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf58dc615bd1055c/69887b620a4a22f7bf9c8267/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 30, 2016 1:12 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton in Iowa City, IO on Jan. 21, 2016 (L); Bernie Sanders in Mount Pleasant, IO on Jan. 29, 2016. Hillary Clinton in Iowa City, IO on Jan. 21, 2016 (L); Bernie Sanders in Mount Pleasant, IO on Jan. 29, 2016.Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images (L); Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 30, 2016 1:12 PM UTC Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both touched down for rallies in Dubuque on Friday afternoon, circling each other like wary boxers before a round. They held events at different times and were likely not in the city at the same time. Each rally was characteristic of its candidate. Clinton gave a highly detailed policy speech, attacked Republicans repeatedly and tied herself close to President Obama’s records. Sanders delivered a stemwinder on the progress America has made and outlined his moral indignation on wealth inequality, corporate influence and expensive colleges. Even while the candidates’ aides bicker on the sidelines, Clinton and Sanders have both largely avoided hammering each other in speeches, signaling a break in tone from the last couple weeks when Sanders criticized Clinton for taking Goldman Sachs’ cash and Clinton suggested Sanders would make a feckless president. Their criticisms of one another were subtle and tame, with just days before the Iowa caucuses. Below are many of the aspects of what the candidates did on Friday, each chosen to reveal something about the candidate’s starategy or message. **Backdrop** Clinton: Barn-sized American flag. (Clinton staffer: “Do you think it’s big enough?”) Sanders: A FUTURE TO BELIEVE IN ([berniesanders.com](http://berniesanders.com)) **Crowd Size** Clinton: 450 Sanders: 1,300 **Soundtrack** Clinton: Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Pharrell Williams, Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson Sanders: Simon and Garfunkel, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, The Supremes, John Lennon, Neil Young **Read More:** [_Follow Clinton and Sanders Supporters as They Knock on Doors in New Hampshire_](http://time.com/4184593/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-new-hampshire/) **Pre-rally cheers** Clinton: None Sanders: “Feel the Bern!” **Length of speech** Clinton: 45 minutes Sanders: 81 minutes **Ties to Barack Obama** Clinton: “When President Obama was elected, he called me to Chicago, I didn’t know why but it was because he wanted me to be Secretary of State. But before that, he looked at me and said, ‘It is so much worse than they told us … He inherited that … We made progress!” Sanders: Praise of his election as first black president. **Homage to Iowa** Clinton: “You guys have been the best possible sounding boards.” Sanders: “Eight years ago just at this time almost today, a candidate came to a virtually all state and that candidate ran for president of the United States based on his ideas. Obama came in to the state of Iowa, virtually all-white state … he won here you helped make him president … What Iowa showed the world is that the people of this state were prepared to vote for candidate based on his ideas, and not his race.” **Praise of Bill Clinton** Clinton: “When we have a Democrat in the White House the economy does better. I know the last two Democratic presidents we’ve had … \[My husband\] got to work and he added it up and we ended up with 23 million new jobs and that wasn’t the best of it: incomes went up for everybody Sanders: None. **Funniest Lines:** Clinton: “Gosh, \[In 2000\] we went off and we elected another Republicans—no, the Supreme Court went out and elected a Republican!” Sanders: “If we were in this room 10 years ago, and somebody said, ‘I think in the year 2015, gay couples will have the right to marry in 50 states in this country,’ somebody would look up and say, “What are you smoking?” \[Applause. Long pause.\] “Which actually raises another issue!” **Best Humblebrag** Clinton: “Before it was Obamacare, it was Hillary-care.” Sanders: “Nobdoy in America knew who I was, that was a problem.” **Best Crowd-Pleasing Line** Clinton: Johnson Controls company, which recently moved overseas, “can pretend they’re now a European company so they can avoid paying taxes to the United States government which saved them in 2008! That is absolutely un-American. That is wrong. This is one of those tax gimmicks they call an “IN-version.” Honestly, it should be called a ‘PER-version.'” Sanders: “Not one executive on Wall Street ever been prosecuted…. Together, you and I are going to restore faith and bring justice to the criminal justice system. No matter how high and matter no matter how rich and powerful, if somebody breaks the law, they’re gonna pay for it.” **Not-So-Subtle attack against the other** Clinton: “I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver.” Sanders: “We do not represent the billionaire class, the drug companies, Wall Street, we don’t want their money and we are not going to have a super PAC. I am the only Democratic candidate for president who does not have a super PAC, who does not go to the wallets of investment bankers in order to raise campaign funds.” **Trademark gesticulation** Clinton: The vigorous yet controlled point. Sanders: Right arm extended perpendicular to the body, thumb and two fingers held together chopstick-style, tapping rapidly on the air. **Time shaking hands at rope line** Clinton: 39 minutes Sanders: 6 minutes **What fans said** Clinton: “How anyone can even think of going with anybody else doesn’t make any sense. Bernie is good, but Hillary has so much more experience.” — Carma Homjak, Dubuque Sanders: “Hillary personifies the corporate establishment. She’s a shill for Wall Street. A person like Bernie, people like him because he’s not bought and paid-for.” — Julius Sheppard ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/"},"headline":"A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies","datePublished":"2016-01-30T13:12:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:38.332Z","description":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both touched down for rallies in Dubuque on Friday afternoon.","url":"https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Iowa","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf58dc615bd1055c/69887b620a4a22f7bf9c8267/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf58dc615bd1055c/69887b620a4a22f7bf9c8267/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sanders-clinton","caption":"Hillary Clinton in Iowa City, IO on Jan. 21, 2016 (L); Bernie Sanders in Mount Pleasant, IO on Jan. 29, 2016.","creditText":"Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images (L); Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4201067/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-iowa-rallies/","name":"A Tale of Two Democratic Rallies"}}]}] ```