Thread: Democrats in Open Warfare Over Clinton Legacy

Democrats in Open Warfare Over Clinton Legacy

Friday, January 25, 2008 12:44 PM

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's White House contest Thursday degenerated into open warfare over Bill Clinton's legacy, just two days before the rivals' next showdown at the polls.

Obama faced his sternest test as in the crossfire with the Clinton election machine, as his foe's camp sought to discredit his quest for a loftier brand of politics, in an anger-marred run-in to Saturday's South Carolina primary.

In extraordinary exchanges, the Illinois senator's backers stopped just short of branding Bill Clinton, the only post-war Democrat to win two terms, a liar, as polls predicted he would reap an easy victory in the southern state.

The spats revealed the flashpoint of the Democratic race: the conflict between Obama's soaring rhetoric, and the Clinton camp's claim he is naively ill-equipped to take on their sworn Republican enemies.

Obama's tactics in taking on a still-popular ex-president represent a gamble, analysts said, as he tried to whip up voter fatigue with the Clintons.

Clinton's aides insisted Obama had long plotted to discredit the ex-president, as the old-war horse again took center stage.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, an Obama supporter, drove home the attack, complaining the former president's tirades this week had smudged her candidate's record with untruths, notably on his opposition to the Iraq war.

"A former president needs to be very careful with the truth," MacCaskill said.

"The fact that he has shaded things and has tried to manipulate the facts in a way that is patently unfair, I think that is, frankly, flat wrong and I think it's demeaning."

Another Obama surrogate, Joe Erwin, former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, targeted Hillary Clinton.

"There is an old South Carolina saying that goes like this, some people would rather climb a tree to tell a fib, than stand on the ground and tell the truth," he said.

The New York senator's camp hit back hard, defending the Clinton presidency as a synergy of economic prosperity and progressive social policy, which could be replicated with another Clinton in the Oval Office.

Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson accused the Obama operation of rolling out a specifically choreographed attack on Bill Clinton.

"We are calling them on it ... we are not going to stand for that."

But Michelle Obama got in on the political spouse's act.

"What we didn't expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we've seen recently," she said in a fundraising email.

"We didn't expect misleading accusations that willfully distort Barack's record."

The clash came with Clinton, fresh from victories in New Hampshire and Iowa nominating contests, staring at defeat in South Carolina, where Obama is making inroads with African-Americans who once favored her husband.

A Zobgy tracking poll Thursday had Obama leading among likely Democratic voters, 39 percent to 24 percent.

The latest spats were the fallout from Monday's Democratic debate, where Obama fired off his most robust attacks yet against Clinton, and she rapped him for comments she said praised Republicans and conservative icon Ronald Reagan.

Bill Clinton has since been taken the Obama camp to task, in heated appearances, which have some Democrats warning he is smearing his own legacy.

But his campaigning has allowed his wife to skip from South Carolina into a clutch of big states that vote on February 5, and could decide the destiny of the race.

And it was not clear who the clashes, reminiscent of the daily political battles of Clinton's eight White House years, would hurt most.

"The easiest way to disrupt the momentum is to get somebody off message -- get them having to defend their statements in a public context," said Andrew Dowdle, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas, describing the Clinton tactics.

Whether in a Clinton trap or not, Obama is determined to dispel the idea that he is soft.

"She'll say anything, and change nothing. It's time to turn the page," said the script of his campaign's hardest-hitting advertising spot yet.

Clinton aides seemed to welcome such attacks.

"Voters are going to judge someone who started out this campaign promising a politics of hope ... who is now questioning the veracity of the former president," Wolfson said.

"They are going to reject it from someone who for so long, promised us so much better."
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/Democr ... 67429.html

In extraordinary exchanges, the Illinois senator's backers stopped just short of branding Bill Clinton, the only post-war Democrat to win two terms, a liar, as polls predicted he would reap an easy victory in the southern state.

Why did he stop there? Clinton has proven that he IS a liar.

The latest spats were the fallout from Monday's Democratic debate, where Obama fired off his most robust attacks yet against Clinton, and she rapped him for comments she said praised Republicans and conservative icon Ronald Reagan.

What? He's not allowed to praise Reagan? Excuse me, but Reagan was 100 times better that slick Willy and 500 times better than she'd ever hope to be. What a witch!

Obama better be careful... the Clintons have a tendancy to just knock off people that get in thier way

Obama better be careful... the Clintons have a tendancy to just knock off people that get in thier way