To: Peter Dierks who wrote (17980 ) 11/20/2007 10:14:06 PM From: Ann Corrigan Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 224759 Battle-tested by bimbo eruptions >Clinton mocks Obama's childhood experience November 20, 2007 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS SHENANDOAH, Iowa — Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living in a foreign country as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the U.S. ‘‘Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face,’’ Clinton said. ‘‘I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to and has confidence in.’’ Clinton’s statement was prompted by a comment Obama made a day earlier when asked about his foreign policy credentials. He said his life experience gave him a better feel for international issues than most candidates gain from official trips to other nations. He noted his father was from Kenya and that he himself spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. ‘‘Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia,’’ he said Monday. Clinton has been slapping harder at Obama on the issue of experience — on Monday she said the nation’s economy ‘‘can’t afford on-the-job training’’ for the next president — as surveys show them in a tight race with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for January’s leadoff caucuses in Iowa. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Obama with 30 percent support among likely Democratic caucus-goers, Clinton with 26 percent and Edwards with 22 percent. About half the Clinton supporters who were surveyed said they had never attended a caucus compared with 43 percent of Obama supporters — a finding that could be significant because voters considered the most reliable caucus participants are those who have caucused before. Clinton made her fresh remarks from a state away. She had been scheduled to open the second day of a campaign trip through Iowa with a town hall meeting in Shenandoah, but aides said her plane was unable to land because of fog. She sought to compare her experience — a two-term New York senator after eight years as first lady — with that of Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois. ‘‘I offer the experience of being battle-tested in the political wars here at home,’’ said Clinton, arguing that her background not only was superior as a potential president but also made her the most electable Democrat. ‘‘For 15 years I’ve been the object of the Republican attack machine and I’m still here,’’ she said. She said she would be ready to address the problems facing the country on her first day in the White House.