Senator Clinton is speaking in Burlington, IA in Des Moines county — the 99th and final county in her now-concluded “Every County Counts” tour, which the campaign is calling a resounding success. Here’s their breakdown by the numbers:

• 8,811 attendees at campaign events
• 165 campaign events and retail stops
• 99 counties
• 5 days
• 1 candidate who is “working for change, working for you.”

One figure not provided: the number of canceled trips in the “Hill-a-Copter,” brought in to help the Senator make all her events on time (and look presidential doing it). Inclement weather plagued the chopper from day one; for the last two days, a thick fog forced her to cancel several flights in favor of long drives across the state. At the Muscatine Family Restaurant after one such canceled flight, Senator Clinton said sadly “I was disappointed with my Hill-a-Copter. I didn’t get to fly.”

And in Burlington, she told the crowd she’d been driving around in the fog all day, saying “some people would say I’ve been in a fog for a long time.”

Check out the campaign’s video highlights of the tour.

So I blew off the second Clinton event of the day to spend some quality time with the Senator’s helicopter — dubbed the “Hill-a-Copter” by the campaign. It’s ferrying her around the Hawkeye state on her 5-day “Every County Counts” tour. Besides nearly freezing to death in the 10 degree cold waiting for the Senator to stop talking to supporters and get in the chopper, it was a lot of fun — even if the pilot refused to take us up for a quick spin. Gimmick? Maybe… but you’ve got to admit, it’s a pretty cool one.

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While Hillary Clinton buzzes around Iowa in her “Hill-a-copter” on the “Every County Counts - Working for Change, Working for You” tour, Obama is doing a little barnstorming himself. He’s in the middle of a five-day, 23-city tour through Iowa — all on a nondescript bus on an unnamed bus tour.

Most candidates ride around early voting states in moving billboards - there’s a bright yellow bus somewhere in Iowa with a giant photo of Chris Dodd’s face on it while John Edwards is cruising around on his “Main Street Express” bus, whose fancy paint job reads, “America Belongs to Us” and “John Edwards ‘08″ underneath.

Apparently splashy buses are not Obama’s style. His understated vehicle (seen below) has no graphics, no signs, and no photos. There is one sign, the campaign told me, but it faces inside to provide a backdrop for television interviews conducted on the bus.

“You don’t need a gimmick to win,” a campaign official said. “You just need to talk to voters.”

When asked at the end of his press availability in Waterloo, Iowa, how he would “top the Hill-a-copter,” Obama laughed.

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The Hill-a-copter, is the helicopter that will buzz Hillary Clinton around Iowa on a five-day tour.

On a more serious note, FOX’s Major Garrett asked Senator Obama about recent comments from both Hillary and Bill Clinton that could be conceived as attacks (former campaign official’s comments on Obama’s past drug use, Hillary Clinton pointing out that she has been vetted, and Bill Clinton saying Obama didn’t have the experience to be president).

Major: “Taken together do you feel there’s something more personal than trying to draw you out or make you angry or make you feel as if you’re being demeaned in this campaign?



”

Barack Obama: “Well look, I mean when I was 20 points down they all thought I was a wonderful guy. Obviously things have changed here in Iowa and the rest of the country and that’s the kind of poltics we’ve become accustomed to. But I know that these families and families all across America are looking for someone to solve problems. They desperately want to see change and they’re much less interested in my kindergarten years or my teenage years than they are in the futures of their children and their grandchildren. And that’s what I’m going to be fighting for and talking about during the course of this campaign.”