VINTON, Iowa – Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton took the soft approach on Sunday in her fight to win the Iowa caucus, reminding voters she is both a mother and a daughter and advocating better support for people who care for others.

Heralded by a musical band of local family members that included a 5-year-old boy who plays guitar and kazoo, the U.S. senator from New York described herself as a member of the “sandwich generation,” with an elderly parent and an adult daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who stood behind her mother on stage.

“I think it’s important for the next president to know what it takes to care for our parents, to continue to do the work we have to do, and care for our children,” she told the crowd. The first caucus to choose the candidates for the November 2008 presidential election takes place in Iowa on Thursday and candidates are using every tool to win over voters.

Clinton proposed an array of measures to help caregivers, who may tend to elderly parents or handicapped children or an ailing spouse. She suggested a $3,000 tax credit for those who require long-term care or are caregivers, a tax credit to help defray the cost of  long-term care insurance and better programs that give respite to caregivers.

The softer image of Clinton came after three days of the candidate striking a tougher pose on the campaign trail where, in the wake of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, she has been reminding voters of her experience in foreign affairs as former first lady and as a member of the Senate.

The gentler focus hearkens back to a move the Clinton campaign made earlier this month, launching videos and testimonials on a website called TheHillaryIKnow.com. The effort to warm up her image is seen as a way to fight off an image that she is cold and politically calculating, an impression her loyalists call unfair.

“We sure do make it hard for us to do the most important job there is, which is caring for each other,” Clinton said on Sunday. “We would have to fill in what people do for love with $300 billion of paid care, so don’t you think it’s about time we actually did more than talk about family values and that we actually valued families and provided help for caregivers?”

On hand to boost Clinton’s family-oriented theme was a local band consisting of parents Vic and Michelle Schmidt and their three sons - 10-year-old Stephen on drums, 8-year-old Samuel on bass guitar and 5-year-old Gabriel, who plays guitar and, according to his proud family, a mean kazoo.

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young