Amy Klobuchar

IT’S A BRISK SATURDAY MORNING IN NOVEMBER, and Amy Klobuchar is pondering the menu at a Sioux City, Iowa, diner where a dish of two buttermilk biscuits smothered in country-style gravy is listed among the “lite” breakfasts. The Minnesota Democrat usually goes for yogurt or a poached egg, she tells me, but today she orders two scrambled eggs with cheese, a side of toast with Smucker’s strawberry jam and a cup of coffee. She needs the extra fuel to get her through the next 12 hours: two campaign events, one caucus training, a three-hour drive back to Minnesota and some debate prep.

Since launching her presidential campaign in February, Klobuchar, 59, has run a workmanlike race. “I figure you do the job in