Chicago Tribune
12-04-07
Now the fun part starts' in Iowa
Clinton and Obama launch sharp attacks
By Rick Pearson and Mike Dorning | Tribune staff reporters
DES MOINES - A Democratic presidential contest that had focused on highminded qualities of leadership, experience and change has whiplashed into
sharp attacks between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over courage,
character and kindergarten writings amid ever-tightening polls and the evercloser Iowa caucuses.
The intensity of the rhetoric flowing between the two rival camps underscores the
stakes of Iowa's presidential deliberations, now less than a month away, for a
Clinton campaign that had initially projected inevitability toward winning the
nomination, only to find a strong challenge from Obama turning the leadoff
contest into a tossup.
"Well, now the fun part starts," Clinton said in kicking off the week with a new
round of attacks on Obama, including using an event Monday to question
whether he has had a history of putting politics ahead of personal conviction from
his days in the Illinois Senate to his time in the U.S. Senate.
Clinton and Obama have traded barbs for more than a week, largely over the
efficacy of each other's plans to provide expanded health care. But the New York
senator's escalated criticism of Obama coincided with the weekend release of a
Des Moines Register Iowa Poll showing her longtime lead in Iowa had been
eclipsed by the Illinois senator. Two major recent polls have now put Obama in
the lead, though two polls released today by The Associated Press and Iowa
State University gave Clinton a slight edge.
"I think that folks from some of the other campaigns are reading the polls and
starting to get stressed and issuing a whole range of outlandish accusations,"
Obama said.
While Obama's campaign has readily responded to Clinton's shots as
"disingenuous attack politics," it also has sought to profit from them. Supporters
on Monday were asked to donate $25 to the Obama campaign through a Web
site address that features the words "cost of negativity." Obama's campaign also
asked supporters to use the Internet to alert them to other attacks.
Clinton: 'A big difference'
A day after Clinton contrasted herself with Obama by saying there was "a big
difference between our courage and our convictions" in seeking universal health
care, she said Monday she was forced to respond to months of criticism from
rival campaigns that have been "attacking my character."
She lashed out at Obama by contending his health-care plan does not provide
true universal coverage and could leave millions without insurance. She charged
he was using "Republican talking points" in seeking to lift the income cap on
Social Security taxes. She alleged hypocrisy in his criticism of her Senate vote to
back a non-binding resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to be a
terrorist organization. Obama missed the roll call because he was on the
campaign trail.
"Well, if he really thought it was a rush to war, why did he rush to campaign and
miss the vote?" she asked.
She also raised a new front on the issue of Obama's use of "present" votes -rather than "yes" and "no" votes -- on legislation when he was in the Illinois
Senate, including on measures that dealt with Republican-led efforts to restrict
abortion rights.
"A president can't vote present. A president can't pick and choose which
challenges he or she will face," Clinton said. "Instead of looking for political cover
or taking a pass, we need a president who will take a stand and stand there and
do whatever is necessary for their country."
Obama has defended his "present" votes on abortion-related bills in the Illinois
legislature, contending it was part of a strategy fashioned with abortion-rights
advocates to help give some Illinois Senate Democrats political cover and to
avoid looking harsh by casting "no" votes that would create a re-election risk.
But the Tribune earlier this year found few lawmakers remembered such a
strategy and many of those who joined with Obama to vote present were, like
him, in politically safe districts.
Obama's campaign said he had received a perfect grade from abortion-rights
advocates during his tenure in Springfield. Obama's camp also has criticized
Clinton for refusing to say how she would enforce a requirement that all citizens
get health insurance.
"The truth is, Barack Obama doesn't need lectures in political courage from
someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq, gave him the benefit of the
doubt on Iran, supported NAFTA and opposed ethanol until she decided to run
for president," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.
Although Clinton has been regularly questioning Obama's political experience, he
has served in legislative bodies longer. Obama was elected to the state
legislature in 1996 and to the Senate in 2004. Clinton, a former first lady, was
elected to the Senate in 2000.
In sharpening his own criticisms, Obama recently has openly mocked Clinton's
frequent reference of her time as first lady as a qualification for the presidency.
He also has questioned her efforts to portray herself as an agent for change
while running a "textbook" campaign that avoids specifics and is driven by polls.
And he has been presenting himself as the more honest and credible candidate,
frequently campaigning beside the slogan "Change We Can Believe In."
If anything, the battling has shown the depth of each campaign's opposition
research in citing quotes or news stories to try to buttress their positions. But it
also has shown the depth a campaign will go to try to prove a candidate is
making a false statement.
Obama's kindergarten essay
To rebut Obama's comments that he was not running "to fulfill some long-held
plans" to be president, the Clinton campaign cited an AP interview with Obama's
kindergarten teacher, who remembered he wrote an essay entitled, "I Want to
Become President."
Asked by reporters Monday if he had any response to Clinton's latest attacks,
Obama said, "No," paused, then added, "It's silly season. I understand she's
been quoting my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia."
Just how the new battle tactics will play out in Iowa, a state where voters
appreciate a hard-fought yet civil measure of candidate strengths and
weaknesses, is anyone's guess -- particularly when the Democratic contest has
remained tight for months between Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John
Edwards of North Carolina.
In the 2004 campaign in Iowa, negativity between Howard Dean and Richard
Gephardt, each of whom had been an Iowa front-runner, has been cited for
playing a role in their dismal showing on caucus night.