USA TODAY
December 4, 2007 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
War of words between Clinton, Obama rages on;
Ill. senator calls it 'the silly season'
BYLINE: Jill Lawrence
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8A
LENGTH: 489 words
DES MOINES -- Barack Obama launched a new "Hillary attacks" website Monday
even as Hillary Rodham Clinton was telling voters in Clear Lake that he had ducked
votes on guns and abortion as an Illinois state legislator.
The sharp exchanges between the two Democrats, a month before the state's leadoff
presidential caucuses Jan. 3, reflect fluctuating polls in a race too close to call.
Clinton's rhetoric in Clear Lake was her most pointed yet. "The Chicago Tribune said
the 'present' votes were the equivalent of taking a pass. Well, instead of looking for
political cover, and taking a pass, we need a president who will take a stand," she
said, according to The Des Moines Register.
"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 ...
and opposed ethanol until she decided to run for president," spokesman Bill Burton
shot back.
Obama's only public event Monday was a small roundtable discussion on credit
problems at which he proposed a consumer bill of rights. Asked afterward about the
escalating rhetoric, he refused to comment on Clinton's claim Monday that this
candidacy promises "false hope."
"It's the silly season," Obama said. "I understand she's been quoting my
kindergarten teacher in Indonesia."
Clinton's campaign sent an e-mail Sunday harking back to Obama's kindergarten and
third-grade dreams of being president. The e-mail came after Obama said that,
unlike some people, he hadn't been planning to run for president his whole life. "Sen.
Obama rewrites history," read Clinton's headline.
"Panicked by poll numbers," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said of the
Clinton camp in an e-mail Monday to supporters.
Two recent polls, including a Nov. 25-28 Des Moines Register poll released over the
weekend, showed Obama ahead of Clinton for the first time, although within the
margin of error. Two polls released Monday by Iowa State University and APPew Research Center, both done earlier in the month and with larger error
margins than the Register poll, also were statistical ties but had Clinton
ahead.
Clinton's campaign also cited post-grade-school evidence of Obama's interest in
higher office.
That didn't stop John Edwards, who ranks third in Iowa polls, from having some fun
with Obama's alleged third-grade ambitions. "I think that does present a serious
character question," he said teasingly in Waterloo. "I want to confess to all of you, in
third grade, I wanted to be two things. I wanted to be a cowboy and I wanted to be
Superman."
His verdict: "Boy, you can tell you're getting close to the caucus."
Clinton had said Sunday that she would draw more contrasts with her rivals after
"months" of absorbing their attacks. "Now the fun part starts," she said in Cedar
Rapids.
Plouffe berated her in his e-mail for saying that attacking other Democrats is "the
fun part" of a campaign. "We disagree," he said.