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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (357244)	11/6/2007 3:54:16 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1577553

Obama rejects Bill Clinton's criticism By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago Barack Obama said Tuesday that former President Clinton is making a leap to compare treatment of his wife in the presidential race to the "swift boat" criticism of John Kerry in 2004. The former president had encouraged an audience in Nevada Monday not to let "trivial matters" take away the election from the Democrats as they have in the past. He cited the television ads during the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned Kerry's patriotism and campaign commercials in 2002 suggesting that Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga. was soft on terrorism. Both Kerry and Cleland won medals for their service in Vietnam, during which Kerry commanded a Navy "swift boat" and Cleland lost three limbs. Both were defeated after the ads aired. "I was pretty stunned by that statement," Obama said with a chuckle when asked about the former president's comment in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He said that when debating last week whether illegal immigrants should be given driver's licenses, Hillary Rodham Clinton "seemed to contradict what she said previously." Both Obama and John Edwards have criticized her repeatedly on that score, but Obama said in the interview: "How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach." Sen. Chris Dodd, another candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called the Clintons' response to the debate "outrageous." "To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of swiftboating ... is way over the top in my view," Dodd said in a telephone interview. "If elected to the presidency, there will be a lot of tough questions and if you can't handle it in a debate without accusing everybody who has an issue with you of piling on or a sexist attack, somehow, first of all that's unwise and, secondly, it's false," Dodd said. Obama, during his phone interview, also had criticism for his top two campaign rivals — Clinton and former Sen. Edwards. The Illinois senator said Clinton does not have the track record to back up two of her proposals — increasing fuel economy and the production of renewable fuels like ethanol — both of which he said she's voted against in the Senate. "I think it is important to look at who has been a consistent champion on these issues," Obama said. "I think I can make a legitimate claim that I have been consistent even when the politics is hard." Edwards has said he would be the stronger fighter to get rid of the influence of special interests in Washington. But Obama said Edwards did not take on those interests when he was a senator from North Carolina. "I'm happy to put my track record next to John's," Obama said. "He's been talking about it on the campaign trail, but when he was on position to do something, we fare well in that track record." Sen. Clinton's comments on driver's licenses came at the end of a televised Democratic presidential debate last week. She hedged on whether she supported a plan by her home state governor, New York's Eliot Spitzer, to issue licenses to illegal immigrants. Both Democratic and Republican rivals have criticized her answer, accusing her of trying to have it both ways, and since then the Clinton campaign has accused them of ganging up on her. Obama said he didn't protest when a debate in Iowa over the summer began with questions about his lack of experience and public foreign policy views. "You didn't hear us complain that somehow we were being picked on," Obama said. "I mean, I think it's assumed that we are running for the presidency of the United States of America and that we've got to answer tough questions." Bill Clinton made his comments at a convention of the American Postal Workers Union. "We listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff," Clinton said. "And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous swift boat ad was run against Senator Kerry. When there was an ad that defeated Max Cleland in Georgia, a man that left half his body in Vietnam." "Why am I saying this? Because, I had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy land again," Clinton said. "Ya'll raise your hand if you're for illegal immigrants getting a driver's license. So, we then let the Republicans go ahead saying all the Democrats are against the rule of law." ___ Associated Press writer Ron Fournier in Newton, Iowa, contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: barackobama.com