WASHINGTON, 23 February 2007 — The US presidential campaign turned nasty Wednesday as Democrat frontrunners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded barbs.
Sen. Clinton’s campaign team took the gloves off to accuse Sen. Obama of engaging in the “slash and burn” and “trash” politics he decries.
White House hopefuls Obama and Clinton are competing for support from stars and moguls in California this week as they hunt for millions of dollars from an elite group of famous donors to bankroll their campaigns.
The dispute was ignited after the co-founder of DreamWorks SKG movie studio, David Geffen, played host at a $1.3 million black-tie Hollywood fundraiser for Obama, attended by stars such as Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller.
Geffen was once a high-profile donor to former President Bill Clinton, raising $18 million for his campaign and twice staying in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House.
But the pair fell out in 2001 over Clinton’s refusal to pardon one of Geffen’s friends.
In an interview with influential New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Geffen said: “Everybody in politics lies, but they (the Clintons) do it with such ease, it’s troubling.” The movie mogul also described Clinton as “a reckless guy” and said it did not matter how smart and ambitious Hillary was, she couldn’t unite America.
“Obama is inspirational and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family,” Geffen said, adding The New York Times had quoted him correctly, and that his comments were solely his personal beliefs regarding the Clintons.
Hillary responded yesterday saying: “I want to run a very positive campaign, and I sure don’t want Democrats or the supporters of Democrats to be engaging in the politics of personal destruction.” Her campaign team went further, demanding that Obama return Geffen’s $2,300 contribution and reject Geffen’s comments.
The Obama team declined both demands.
The feud may dampen any expectation that senators Clinton and Obama could share a Democratic Party presidential ticket as running mates next year.
Hillary’s communications director, Howard Wolfson, said: “How can Sen. Obama denounce the politics of slash and burn yesterday while his own campaign is espousing the politics of trash today?”
The Obama team fought back. “We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters,” the senator’s communications director, Robert Gibbs, said.
“It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom.”
Hillary is leading Obama in the opinion polls for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, but both are vigorously competing for donations to bankroll their campaign.
Democratic 2008 Hopefuls Spar on Iraq War
Eight Democratic presidential contenders sparred gently on Wednesday on how to end the Iraq war, and Hillary Clinton decried “the politics of personal destruction” during the first joint appearance of an already heated 2008 campaign.
At a union-sponsored forum for Democratic White House hopefuls in Nevada, Clinton again sidestepped a question about why she will not call her 2002 Senate vote authorizing the war a mistake, but said “I have taken responsibility for my vote.” Rival John Edwards, a former senator who also voted to authorize the war but has called that a mistake, did not name Clinton but drew an indirect comparison between her stance and President George W. Bush’s reluctance to admit mistakes in Iraq.
“We’ve had...six years of a president who is incapable of admitting that he was wrong, incapable of admitting that he’s made a mistake. It’s time for a different kind of leadership in this country,” Edwards said.
“We need a leader who will be open and honest with you and with the American people, who will tell the truth, who will tell the truth when they’ve made a mistake.” Clinton, a New York senator who leads the Democratic field in early national polls, has been criticized for her failure to renounce her 2002 vote although she now harshly condemns the war and has promised to end it immediately if she is elected.
The forum, sponsored by the nation’s largest public employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was attended by all Democratic presidential hopefuls except Sen. Obama, who campaigned in Iowa instead.
The candidates appeared on stage separately and did not interact with each other, taking three questions and offering timed opening and closing statements.
Several Democrats criticized the failure of Congress to take concrete steps to end the unpopular war after disgruntled voters swept them into power in November’s elections. The House passed a nonbinding resolution last week voicing opposition to Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq, but the Senate failed on procedural grounds to take a vote on Iraq.
“With all due respect, we’ve spent the last several weeks debating. Young men and women are losing their lives in Iraq. They deserve better than we’re giving them,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
All of the Democrats expressed support for universal health care for the nearly 47 million Americans without health insurance coverage, although there were some slight differences in how they would pay for it.
— With additional input from agencies.
