Obama says Clintons' attacks will backfire

[ariesgem]

BY GLENN THRUSH | [e-mail]
December 16, 2007

WATERLOO, Iowa - Barack Obama, stung by a fresh Bill Clinton attack on him, predicted that the Clinton campaign's increasingly negative tone will backfire by reminding voters of the bad, old "blood sport" days of the 1990s.

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A red-faced Bill Clinton sparked a new Bubba-vs.-Bama feud Friday night by telling Charlie Rose the Illinois senator was little more experienced than a TV "commentator" - and quipping that reporters covering Obama were so starry-eyed they behaved like stenographers and didn't probe his history.

"I am old-fashioned. I think a president ought to have done something" before being elected, said Clinton.

At one point, Rose said Clinton staffers were in the control booth trying to cut off the interview.

Yesterday, Obama pulled out a piece of paper and began reading aloud after a reporter asked him about the former president's broadside.

" 'The same, old experience is irrelevant, you've got the right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience,'" he recited. "'And mine is rooted in the real lives of real people ... ' That was Bill Clinton in 1992."

Obama, buoyed by a Boston Globe endorsement, took issue with her comment Friday that she was the only candidate who couldn't be hurt by surprises in her past.

"I've probably been more reported on than any political figure in the last year ...," he said. "I understand that there's a history of politics being all about slash-and-burn and taking folks down. I recall the Clintons themselves calling it 'the politics of personal destruction,' which they decried. That's just not where the country's at right now, they are not interested in politics as a blood sport."

Of his adolescent drug use, he said, "The average American believes what someone does when they were a teenager 30 years ago probably is not relevant."

Later, he defended his campaign's research expedition to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, saying it was legitimate to seek information on Hillary Clinton's eight years in the White House.

"They would not be looking for personal items," Obama said of a Washington Post account of his campaign's research. "Sen. Clinton has argued that her experience as first lady is relevant."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-ushill165503374dec16,0,6100681.story

[Perry Logan]

1. Clinton says Obama's attacks on her alleged attacks will backfire. And so it goes.

[earthlover]

2. Judging by recent Iowa polls, there is evidence Obama is rising

since Hillary broke her promise not to be negative. Woman of her word? Maybe she just "forgot" that she had told us she would not go negative. It wasn't that long ago either.

Of course, Hillary's campaign has attacked Obama on a personal level for a long, long time. Way back in July she called him "irresponsible and frankly naive". So only the Hillary Gaggle really believed she would not go negative recently, and of course Hillary knew her starry-eyed Gaggle would not even notice that when she went back to going negative she would be going against her word.

Her campaign is the same old same old. We need something different in this country.

[Cha]

9. hillary is getting desperate and

it's not pretty.

[Bitwit1234]

3. It Oprah hadn't paid to bush all those extra students

in to Iowa Obama wouldn't have went up in the polls. And why isn't Obama held accountable for all his negativity against Hillary. I guess there are two standards the Hillary Haters spew their crap all day all night and Hillary supporters HAVE MORE CLASS AND CHARACTER TO RESORT TO ATTACK, LIE, SLAME FLAME AND BASH.

[sniffa]

5. all those bushed extra students were bushed in just to take polls

and yeah, you guys are all class. :rofl:

[tammywammy]

7. How exaclty do you "bush" students?

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. Playing the victim must be good for poll numbers

What "attacks" have not already been addressed ad naseum?

[Franc_Lee]

6. Quite obviously Bill Clinton understands that Hillary is no longer a shoe-in as was

previously claimed by the M$M and the GOP... I also believe Hillary's decline is bothering Bill much more then it is effecting Hillary.

[Cha]

8. "stenographers"? That's what

the chimp house press corp has been for the last 7 years..you know the ones, bill. The ones who write down religiously what chimptard says without question..the bushit enabling that your wife has supported for the last FIVE YEARS.