Hillary Attacks: Assaults Barack Obama’s Courage and Character

December 3, 2007

No more Mrs. Nice Guy.

Hillary Rodham Clinton launched a winter offensive against Barack Obama on the icy Iowa plains yesterday, belittling Obama's political courage and personal character on a day when he seized the lead in a major Iowa poll.

Hillary goes after Barack Obama's integrity "I have for months been on the receiving end of rather insistent attacks - and now the fun part starts," Clinton told reporters in Cedar Rapids. "We're into the last month and we're going to start drawing a contrast."

Clinton, who usually dispenses criticism of fellow Democrats with an eyedropper, offered it by the bucketful, after months of portraying similar attacks against her as poison for the Democratic Party.

Clinton began by stepping up her attacks on Obama's health care plan, which she claims would leave 15 million Americans without coverage.

"There's a big difference between our courage and our convictions," Clinton said, referring to the proposals. "The people of Iowa will get the chance to choose between someone who talks the talk and someone who walks the walk."

When a reporter asked whether Obama's shortcomings brought his "character" into question, she replied, "It's beginning to look a lot like that."

Obama adviser David Axelrod predicted Clinton's aggressiveness would backfire in Iowa, a state where civility is considered a civic virtue. "I think it was revealing that she really believes attacking is fun - it's one of those revealing, little moments," said Axelrod. "Attacking is really part of the problem. We are trying to get this country past that divisive kind of politics."

Speaking in Des Moines, Obama said, "Some of the other campaigns are reading the polls and starting to get stressed."

A Des Moines Register poll last week showed Obama in the lead for the first time with 28 percent of Democrats' votes, compared with Clinton's 25 percent.

In a distressing development for Clinton, Iowa women now favor Obama by 31 percent to 26 percent, according to the survey. In October, before Obama began sharpening his attacks against her, Clinton bested him 34 percent to 21 percent among female Democrats.

Clinton's remarks came hours after her campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, called Obama's pet political action committee a "slush fund" and demanded it be dissolved. Last week, it was disclosed that Obama's Hopefund dispensed about $200,000 to Democrats in early primary states, prompting Clinton's staff to claim he may have violated federal election rules.

Clinton took delight in tweaking Obama on the PAC after months of enduring criticism from Obama and John Edwards for not joining them in rejecting donations from federal lobbyists and PACs.

"It's beginning to look a lot like . . . somebody who runs on ethics and not taking money from certain people has . . . at least skirted if not violated FEC rules and used lobbyists and PAC money to do so," Clinton charged.

Obama's staff denied any wrongdoing and he called attacks on his PAC "outlandish."

Source: Newsday

Posted by Hillary · Filed Under Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton in the News, News, Top Story

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Hillary Attacks: Assaults Barack Obama’s Courage and Character

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