Clinton ratchets up attacks on Obama
By Ed Tibbetts, Quad-City Times | Posted: Monday, December 03, 2007
On a day that a new poll said Barack Obama leads in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggested her rival has character issues.
Clinton closed out her Sunday with an appeal to voters in Bettendorf to caucus for her, but earlier in Cedar Rapids she took Obama to task over his health care plan and disputed his claim he doesn't take lobbyist money.
When a reporter asked whether she is suggesting Obama has "issues of character," the New York senator said, "I'm going to let voters make that decision but it's beginning to look a lot like that. It really is."
The two campaigns spent a good part of the day tangling with each other, all of it on the heels of a new Des Moines Register poll in Iowa that said Obama leads Clinton and John Edwards.
The poll, published Sunday, said that Obama has 28 percent support, with Clinton next at 25 percent and Edwards in third with 23 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.
With a month to go before the Jan. 3 caucuses, the campaigns are beginning to sharpen their attacks.
Clinton's appearance at The Lodge in Bettendorf, though, was all about turning out the vote by encouraging people to "buddy-up" with friends and neighbors to boost turnout.
"It is close, it is tight. It's going to be a race to the finish line," Clinton told about 400 people.
Clinton said she wanted to win the caucuses -- and, next year, push the state into the Democratic column in the general election.
"I want a long-term relationship," she said. "I don't want to just have a one night stand with all of you."
Clinton was joined by former Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat who has endorsed her.
Gephardt touted Clinton's experience and said there was no time for on-the-job training. "We've had on-the-job training the last seven years and we have a president who's ineducable," he said to applause. "It didn't work."
The Clinton campaign's been drawing contrasts with Obama over health care for the past week.
On Sunday, the campaign ratcheted up the pressure by pointing to news reports that a political action committee run by Obama has contributed tens of thousands of dollars this year to local and congressional campaigns in early nominating states.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said early Sunday that Obama ought to shut down the PAC, which he pointed out has taken lobbyist money. Obama has made swearing off lobbyist money a campaign issue. He says his campaign doesn't accept it.
The Illinois senator, who was in Des Moines on Sunday, brushed off the complaints.
Clinton said she shut down her leadership PAC when she launched her presidential bid but Obama "at least skirted if not violated FEC rules" and used "lobbyist and PAC money to do so."
Clinton said she'd rather attack Republicans, but added, "I have been on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks. Well now the fun part starts. We're in the last month and we're going to start drawing the contrasts ..."
Obama's campaign said that 57 percent of his PAC's money this year went to candidates in non-early states, and it cited a news report saying a Clinton family foundation donated $100,000 this year to a South Carolina library. South Carolina has an early primary.
"This presidential campaign isn't about attacking people for fun, it's about solving people's problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system," Obama said in a statement late Sunday.
Charlotte Eby of the Journal Des Moines Bureau contributed to this story.
Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.
Clinton closed out her Sunday with an appeal to voters in Bettendorf to caucus for her, but earlier in Cedar Rapids she took Obama to task over his health care plan and disputed his claim he doesn't take lobbyist money.
When a reporter asked whether she is suggesting Obama has "issues of character," the New York senator said, "I'm going to let voters make that decision but it's beginning to look a lot like that. It really is."
The two campaigns spent a good part of the day tangling with each other, all of it on the heels of a new Des Moines Register poll in Iowa that said Obama leads Clinton and John Edwards.
The poll, published Sunday, said that Obama has 28 percent support, with Clinton next at 25 percent and Edwards in third with 23 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percent.
With a month to go before the Jan. 3 caucuses, the campaigns are beginning to sharpen their attacks.
Clinton's appearance at The Lodge in Bettendorf, though, was all about turning out the vote by encouraging people to "buddy-up" with friends and neighbors to boost turnout.
"It is close, it is tight. It's going to be a race to the finish line," Clinton told about 400 people.
Clinton said she wanted to win the caucuses -- and, next year, push the state into the Democratic column in the general election.
"I want a long-term relationship," she said. "I don't want to just have a one night stand with all of you."
Clinton was joined by former Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, a Missouri Democrat who has endorsed her.
Gephardt touted Clinton's experience and said there was no time for on-the-job training. "We've had on-the-job training the last seven years and we have a president who's ineducable," he said to applause. "It didn't work."
The Clinton campaign's been drawing contrasts with Obama over health care for the past week.
On Sunday, the campaign ratcheted up the pressure by pointing to news reports that a political action committee run by Obama has contributed tens of thousands of dollars this year to local and congressional campaigns in early nominating states.
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said early Sunday that Obama ought to shut down the PAC, which he pointed out has taken lobbyist money. Obama has made swearing off lobbyist money a campaign issue. He says his campaign doesn't accept it.
The Illinois senator, who was in Des Moines on Sunday, brushed off the complaints.
Clinton said she shut down her leadership PAC when she launched her presidential bid but Obama "at least skirted if not violated FEC rules" and used "lobbyist and PAC money to do so."
Clinton said she'd rather attack Republicans, but added, "I have been on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks. Well now the fun part starts. We're in the last month and we're going to start drawing the contrasts ..."
Obama's campaign said that 57 percent of his PAC's money this year went to candidates in non-early states, and it cited a news report saying a Clinton family foundation donated $100,000 this year to a South Carolina library. South Carolina has an early primary.
"This presidential campaign isn't about attacking people for fun, it's about solving people's problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system," Obama said in a statement late Sunday.
Charlotte Eby of the Journal Des Moines Bureau contributed to this story.
Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.
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ER wrote on Dec 3, 2007 6:36 PM:
Dick wrote on Dec 3, 2007 6:17 AM: