Dubuque, Ia. - Democrat Hillary Clinton on Saturday tried to drive home her belief that she is electable - and that she is best person to deal with "the unexpected."

"We look at all of the problems that await," she said in the town of Clinton. "And yet even with all of that, we do not know all of the difficulties the next president will face. It's the unpredictable. It's the unexpected as well as what we believe will happen."

In a rare move, Clinton took questions from reporters in Eldridge.

A reporter told her that rival Democrat Barack Obama has suggested that her foreign policy experience amounts to having tea with foreign leaders and that Democrat Christopher Dodd said her experience is akin to first lady Laura Bush's: witnessing experience, not having it.

Clinton responded that she's happy to talk about her experience in 80 countries, from working for peace in Northern Ireland to standing up for women's rights in Beijing.

Later in Dubuque, Clinton told a crowd of about 600 that as first lady, she represented America in "places that oftentimes were not necessarily a place a president could go."

"We used to say in the White House that if a place was too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the first lady," she said.

She said she was the first high-profile American to go into Bosnia after the peace accord was signed.

"We landed in one of those corkscrew landings and ran out because they said there might be sniper fire. I don't remember anyone offering me tea on the tarmac there."

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama's tea comment was not a critique of another candidate. "What Senator Obama was referencing are trips to Europe paid at the taxpayers' expense that amount to little more than exchanging pleasantries at the embassy," he said.

Also Saturday, Clinton promised to look deeper into the causes of Gulf War syndrome after a Desert Storm veteran questioned her about it. "I promise you that among my priorities will be trying to get to the bottom of this," Clinton said.

She said when she was first lady, she investigated after veterans or their wives approached her about unexplainable ailments.

The reasons why military members got sick is still unknown - people have looked at the anthrax vaccines, the pesticides that were heavily used in sleeping and eating areas, and residue from depleted-uranium weapons, she said.

"One thing we did accomplish is that we forced the VA to recognize the Gulf War syndrome," Clinton said. "Couldn't give you the specifics, but because of the work I did, we did get to the point where you will be recognized as having some combination of ailments.

"But now we've to figure out what's really causing it and I promise you, I will do my best to get that done."

By Jennifer Jacobs, Des Moines Register, December 30, 2007