By Craig Crawford, CQ Staff

DES MOINES, Iowa – Democratic presidential hopefuls have few major events left to reach big numbers of voters in the crucial state of Iowa — raising the stakes when the candidates collide on Saturday for a lightning round of 10-minute speeches before an expected audience of 9,000 at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

Much of the buzz, as usual, is about front-running candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton — especially whether the New York senator can do something in so little time to effectively counter her campaign’s longest stretch of bad news. Even though national polls show no impact from a faulty Oct. 30 debate performance and several missteps since, the Clinton camp is looking for a turnaround moment.

All of the candidates will be aiming to please this crowd of party activists, who can make a big difference in getting voters to go out in the cold to attend the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. But Clinton also needs a hit with the national news media.

Whether it is a result of the usual heightened scrutiny for a front-runner, or rather is pent-up dislike left over from the candidate’s White House years as first lady to President Bill Clinton, national news coverage and commentary about her suddenly turned quite harsh in the last two weeks. A boffo performance on Saturday might put an end to this episode of negativity — but given the historical friction between the Clintons and the media, there will be others.