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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) campaign lashed out at Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) camp Monday afternoon, charging that Obama has betrayed his supporters by engaging in negative politics after promising to change the way elections are conducted. “It’s now clear the Obama campaign has gone off the high road and now clearly holds the low road,” Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman, said. Singer, who was joined by Clinton’s chief spokesman Howard Wolfson on a conference call with reporters, said Obama’s campaign was “fueled” by a promise to end politics as usual, a promise that he has broken. “It’s now clear the Obama campaign is fueled by insults and slander,” Singer said. The Clinton campaign singled out comments made in recent days by Obama supporter retired Gen. Tony McPeak, who compared former President Bill Clinton to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.). Wolfson and Singer also targeted a blog post by Gordon Fischer, an Obama supporter and former director of the Iowa Democratic Party. In a post about McPeak’s comments, Fischer also mentioned the former president’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. “Bill Clinton cannot possibly seriously believe Obama is not a patriot, and cannot possibly be said to be helping — instead he is hurting — his own party … Clinton should never be forgiven. Period,” Fischer wrote on his blog, according to ABCNews.com. “This is a stain on his legacy, much worse, much deeper, than the one on Monica's blue dress.” Fischer has since deleted that entry, which Wolfson called “disgusting,” and posted an apology in its place. Fischer wrote that he “sincerely apologizes for a tasteless and gratuitous comment I made here about President Clinton. It was unnecessary and wrong.” The Clinton campaign, however, said both comments reflect a change in Obama’s strategy to take a negative turn. “It is a message designed not to build him up but to tear Senator Clinton down,” Wolfson said. “That’s not the kind of politics we were promised by Senator Obama. “Voters should know that this is the kind of campaign the Obama team is running,” he added. David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, said on a conference call earlier Monday that while he disagreed with the wording McPeak used, the campaign does not believe that questioning the patriotism of either candidate is appropriate in the race. |
