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Title: Democratic Rivals Clash Before Pivotal Primaries
Source:
NEW YORK TIMES online (reg. required)
URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
Published: Mar 4, 2008
Author: ELISABETH BUMILLER and JOHN M. BRODER
Post Date: 2008-03-04 14:24:48 by HOUNDDAWG
Keywords: Hillary, Lizards, demonic
Views: 72
Comments: 3
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled over national security and trade in a frantic burst of last-minute campaigning on Monday as Mrs. Clinton accused Mr. Obama of deception and new evidence of discord surfaced within her own camp. With less than 24 hours to go before voting in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign released a television advertisement accusing Mr. Obama of being AWOL from his chairmanship of a Senate oversight committee on the forces fighting in Afghanistan. “He was too busy running for president to hold even one hearing,” it said. Mr. Obama’s campaign, counterpunching, said Mrs. Clinton had herself missed important hearings on Afghanistan before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. The day was the latest installment in the riveting drama between two formidable, historic candidates: the first woman to be a serious contender for president and the charismatic young black man who has packed arenas across the country and overtaken Mrs. Clinton in many polls and the delegate count. Mrs. Clinton, facing calls from some Democrats to get out of the race should she do poorly on Tuesday after 11 straight losses, appeared almost defiant as she declared at the start of her day in Ohio, “I’m just getting warmed up.” Then she charged that one of Mr. Obama’s senior advisers had told Canadian officials that Mr. Obama’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement was largely a political tactic, not a serious policy position. Mr. Obama denied that he was sending back-door messages to the Canadians and said that the Clinton campaign was “throwing the kitchen sink” at him. Mrs. Clinton had her own internal problems as reports of dysfunction and finger-pointing rumbled through her operation. In an e-mail message sent over the weekend to The Los Angeles Times, Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s pollster, appeared to be distancing himself from the campaign’s operations when he said he had “no direct authority in the campaign.” Mr. Penn described himself as merely “an outside message adviser with no campaign staff reporting to me.” Mr. Penn is a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and serves — as he invariably describes himself — as the campaign’s chief strategist. This means he is involved in directing the message presented by Mrs. Clinton in her speeches and campaign advertisements, and the overall strategic thrusts of the campaign. He has also often served as the voice of the campaign — appearing on television and giving interviews pressing Mrs. Clinton’s cause. On Monday night, Mr. Penn said his e-mail message to the newspaper had been misunderstood. “This has been taken out of context and related to a very narrow question of operations,’’ Mr. Penn said in a telephone interview with The New York Times. “Of course, I am the chief message adviser to the campaign. We have a big day ahead of us and expect to be very successful.” On Monday, Mr. Obama faced continuing questions about his relationship with the developer Antoin Rezko, who is now on trial in Chicago and accused of exploiting political relationships with the Illinois governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, to obtain millions of dollars in kickbacks on state contracts. Mr. Obama is not implicated in any aspect of the case, but Mr. Rezko has contributed $150,000 over the years to Mr. Obama’s campaigns and helped him buy a home. At the same time, Mr. Rezko bought an adjoining strip of land he later sold to Mr. Obama. At a news conference on Monday in San Antonio, Mr. Obama said he had already acknowledged that he had erred. “I brought a strip of land on an adjacent property that he had purchased; I have said that was a mistake,” Mr. Obama said. “I have been very open about what I have called a boneheaded move.” Mr. Obama said there was no suggestion that he had betrayed the public trust or given political favors to Mr. Rezko. He has not disclosed the number of fund-raisers Mr. Rezko held for him. The Clinton campaign has also found itself on the defensive over demands from the Obama campaign that it release her records as first lady. On Monday, the National Archives said Mrs. Clinton’s schedules could be released later this month, but asked a judge to delay the release of thousands of her telephone logs for one to two years. Showing the intensity of the contest, officials predicted a record turnout among Democratic voters in Texas. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain and Mike Huckabee also campaigned in Texas on Monday — between them they appeared in Abilene, San Antonio, Waco and Houston — but their race was genteel compared with the angry tone of the Democrats. At a news conference in Phoenix before leaving for Texas, Mr. McCain, the likely Republican nominee, addressed a host of foreign policy topics, including the Russian election and the attacks on Israel from Gaza. He also called on President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela to withdraw his troops from the Colombian border. When he was asked about the debate between Senators Clinton and Obama over who would be better prepared to field a 3 a.m. phone call in the White House, he said, “Well, I think many Americans, when they consider the three of us, I would believe that my knowledge, and experience and background clearly indicates that if the phone rang at 3 a.m. in the White House, and I was the one to answer it, I would be the one most qualified to exercise the kind of judgment necessary to address a national security crisis.” Mr. McCain’s advisers had hoped that Mr. McCain would win enough delegates on Tuesday to secure the 1,191 delegates necessary for the Republican nomination. But even if Mr. McCain wins all of them — there are 256 Republican delegates at stake on Tuesday — he will not have enough to claim the nomination, according to tallies by The New York Times. Nonetheless, The Associated Press has conducted a survey of superdelegates, which would give Mr. McCain another 102 unpledged delegates. If those are included in Tuesday’s count, Mr. McCain might have enough if he wins handily on Tuesday. Mrs. Clinton began her day shaking hands at 5:35 a.m., when she stood just inside the turnstile at Chrysler’s Toledo North Assembly plant greeting workers as if she were running for a city council seat. “Help me out tomorrow, please,” she implored as workers passed by. “I’d be honored to have your vote.” The reactions varied. One worker was pulled along by the crowd and ended up shaking Mrs. Clinton’s hand. “Aw, man,” he said. “Now I have to go home and wash my hands.” He declined to give his name. But Deborah Young, 51, a vehicle inspector, was mildly awe-struck. “Isn’t she the coolest?” Ms. Young said. On Monday evening, Mrs. Clinton made a brief detour from the campaign trail to appear via satellite on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Standing at a rally in Austin, Tex., she took the first question from Jon Stewart, who wondered why, with only one day left before the primaries on Tuesday, she was taking time to appear on his show. “It is pretty pathetic,” Mrs. Clinton deadpanned. Reporting was contributed by Michael Powell from San Antonio, Michael Cooper from Phoenix and by Julie Bosman, Adam Nagourney and Dalia Sussman from New York. Poster Comment: I want Hillary (and Bale, who can't wait to sink his teeth into a fresh batch of White House muffins) to get the message: "WE DON'T CARE! We don't care if you're better qualified and more experienced than Obama! We don't want you back for any reason, period! We'd vote for a goddam Mbuti Pygmy before we'd vote for you and your lech co-president, Sir Hillary! The goddam Clintons are so accustomed to getting whatever they want and the law and common decency have never posed obstacles to them. In the past if that meant burying problems in shallow graves then they'd do it, and then roast marshmallows on a campfire built on top of the grave. They are as cold blooded as any humans can be, and if it was convenient for me to "commit suicide" then you can bet your ass I'd join the others who inexplicably died under suspicious circumstances. "The Clintons don't like what I'm doing? Oh the shame of it all! I can't go on, Ahhhhhhhh!" When Hillary says things like “I’m just getting warmed up.”, it sends a chill up my spine. Hopefully, Barack Obama is getting advice from the best that C(r)ook(ed) County has to offer his campaign. Those people will know enough to warn him to stay off of ALL airplanes for the duration. If a downed commercial airliner full of MAKE A WISH kids was all it took to make Hillary EMPORESS OF THE UNIVERSE then she wouldn't lose a wink of sleep if it cork-screwed into the Earth and tore out millions of hearts all over the world. The Clintons deserve a classification all of their own-Political Cannibals.
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Let us pray to The Goddess, to SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED that Hillary's campaign will be buried in Texas today. If she loses in TX and OH and still stays in the race, then that is a danger signal for Mr. Obama. I hope the Secret Service realizes that and takes appropriate measures to protect him. If a lone nut is allowed to get close enough to harm Barack then somebody is going to have some explaining to do.... The service went rogue in Dallas and got away with it and it better not happen again. It's not out of the realm of possibility that the president's protective detail could be privatized, after all. Things are much improved since Pinkerton was tasked with Lincoln's security on the campaign trail.
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