WOODBURN, Ore. - In the national media glare of the 2008 election - with its spotlight on snipers and preachers and hypothetical gas tax holidays - it's easy to miss the millions of voters across the country focused on less sexy, more fundamental issues when selecting the next president.

Your Swamp correspondent was reminded of those voters' passion this weekend, when he stopped at a Hillary Clinton house party in a small-town Oregon mobile home park and walked door-to-door with Barack Obama volunteers in a hilly neighborhood in the state capital, Salem.

As Indiana and North Carolina prepare to write the next chapter in the Democratic nomination saga tomorrow, it's worth revisiting these, the root motivations behind both candidates' loyal followings.

About 20 voters, mostly women and many retired, gathered Sunday in Woodburn for the Clinton party that celebrated 88 years of women voting in presidential elections. They sat around tables with pink tablecloths, ate devilled eggs and chocolate cake and little sausages on toothpicks from plastic plates, and shared why they supported the New York senator.

Minnie Jorgenson is an 80-year-old retired nurse who got into politics when she was 16. She has worked for years to advance universal health care, dating back to Clinton's failed push for it as First Lady. She has watched other women get angry about health care, too, with only one criticism: "They were too darn quiet."

In Clinton, Jorgenson sees "a beacon" for women and the health care issue. "It's time that we have a female perspective" in the White House, she said. Asked if she'd been waiting all her life for a female presidential nominee, she replied: "I haven't been waiting. I've been grooming."

Robin Raybourne is a 54-year-old mother of eight, a pro-choice Catholic and a cosmetology instructor. She voted for Clinton as soon as her ballot arrived in the mail on Saturday. She praised the senator's stances on education, children's issues and abortion.

"I believe that she is a fighter," Raybourne said. "She will get the job done. She has experience."

The event hostess, Sandy Tibbets, compared the election to a NASCAR race - and said women were poised to give Clinton the passing power to win at the end.

A day earlier in Salem, financial planners Sheila and Mark Dearman explained how Barack Obama turned them from political benchwarmers into champion canvassers.

Lifelong Democrats who never volunteered on a campaign before, the Dearmans attended an Obama rally in Portland last year with their college-aged son. They left converted.

"He really represents our best chance of solving the problems that we've been amassing over the last eight years," Mark Dearman said as he prepared to leave his kitchen for an afternoon of neighborhood door knocking to urge Obama supporters to return their mail ballots. Later, he added, "I felt like, if we don't get Barack elected, I can't blame myself for not acting.

The Dearmans oppose the Iraq war and worry about health care in America and like Obama's positions on both issues. Sheila Dearman said she also appreciates the quality of the race he has run.

"If this campaign is any evidence of his executive capability," she said, "I'm pretty convinced."