"It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time--not once, 'Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution? You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war. And you took that speech you're now running on off your Web site in 2004. And there's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since.'" Mr. Clinton said at a town-hall style meeting Monday afternoon at Dartmouth College. "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."
Clinton went on to say that the Obama campaign is not as positive as it says it is:
"What did you think about the Obama thing calling Hillary the senator from Punjab? Did you like that? Or what about the Obama handout that was covered up, the press never reported on, implying that I was a crook. Scouring me—scathing criticism over my financial reports. Ken Starr spent $70 million to find out that I wouldn't take a nickel to see the cow jump over the moon."
Of course Clinton has some valid arguments. He's correct in saying that Obama hasn't been asked about his 2004 quote, which the Clinton campaign has repeatedly cited. And he's right in noting that the Obama campaign hasn't always risen above the politics it criticizes. But his rant is desperate. He and his wife are losing for the first time in their lives and they don't know what to do.
Update: I can't find it on the NY Times site, but the HuffingtonPost reports that Obama has responded to Clinton's comments in a report by the Times's Jeff Zeleny. Here was Obama's response:
"I understand they're frustrated right now. I suspect that they'll both try to get back on track in terms of the strategy for them to do better than they feel they're doing right now."
As for Mr. Clinton's pounding away at Mr. Obama's war stances over the years, Mr. Obama said: "But I think Tim Russert answered Bill Clinton this morning. Every point that he raised was a question that had been answered _ had been asked and answered, not only on "Meet the Press" but repeatedly.
It is a little frustrating for the president to _ the former president _ to continually repeat this notion that somehow I didn't know where I stood in 2004 about the war. He keeps on giving half the quote. I was always against the war. The quote he keeps on feeding back was an interview on Meet the Press at the National Convention when Tim was asking, `Given your firm opposition to the war, what do you make of the fact that your nominee for president and vice president didn't have that same foresight.' And obviously I didn't want to criticize them on the eve of their nomination. So I said, `Well, I don't know what _ you know, I wasn't in the Senate. I can't say for certain what I would have done if I was there. I know that from where I stood the case was not made.' He always leaves that out.
"And you know, I understand why he's frustrated. But at some point since we've corrected him repeatedly on this and he keeps on repeating it, you know it tells me that he's just more interested in trying to muddy the waters than actually talk fairly about my record."
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