Hillary Clinton has slammed Barack Obama on Sunday for campaign leaflets on her health-care plan that she called “blatantly false” accusing her rival of resorting to Republican tactics in their contest for the Democratic US presidential nomination.
In a bitter exchange, Obama defended the leaflet as accurate and campaign spokesman Bill Burton decried Clinton’s “negative campaign.” “Shame on you, Barack Obama,” Clinton said, speaking to reporters after a rally in Ohio, a state that is crucial to her struggling campaign.
Brandishing a copy of the leaflet, Clinton said the Obama campaign was spreading “false, misleading, discredited information” about her health-care plan. Obama, has won 10 consecutive state nominating contests since February 5. His string of victories putting him ahead of the race for delegates to a nominating convention this summer where the party will pick a candidate for the November election.
The US presidential race turned more aggressive on Sunday after Hillary Clinton launched a scathing attack on Democratic rival Barack Obama in a bid to restore her front-runner status. After denying that a series of 11 straight losses to Obama left her campaign teetering on the edge of defeat, Clinton changed to a sharper tone and went on the offensive, accusing him of borrowing Republican tactics to criticise her health care and trade positions.
“Shame on you, Barack Obama,” Clinton said on Saturday during a campaign rally in Ohio, which along with the southern state of Texas holds key Democratic nominating contests on March 4.
“It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behaviour in this campaign.” The 60-year-old New York senator — who accused the Obama campaign of sending out misleading policy mailings about health care and free trade — and the 46-year-old Illinois senator are to meet for a final televised debate on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio. Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, warned Clinton’s chances to win the Democratic Party’s nomination now stood at 20 per cent.
He said she needed wins in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and then get delegates from Florida and Michigan, two states cut out of the nominating race over a scheduling dispute, seated at the August party convention. Even then, given Obama’s lead of roughly 150 delegates, she would have to rely on super delegates, party luminaries free to vote how they like at the convention. Obama stood by the statements in his campaign flyers and questioned the timing of Clinton’s attack, noting that the tracts were not new.
“I’m puzzled by the sudden change in tone, unless these were just brought to her attention,” he told reporters in Columbus, Ohio. “The notion that somehow we’re engaging in nefarious tactics, I think, is pretty hard to swallow.” Clinton’s campaign also dismissed as “nonsense” a Washington Post report that quoted an unnamed campaign aide as saying Clinton saw Obama’s win in Wisconsin’s state primary earlier this week as a “decisive blow.” “She knows where things are going. It’s pretty clear she has a big decision. But it’s daunting. It’s still hard to accept,” said the adviser.
“The mathematical reality at that point became impossible to ignore,” the adviser said. “There’s not a lot of denial left at this point.” Clinton has so far won 1,275 delegates, compared to 1,374 for Obama according to RealClearPolitics.com. A total of 2,025 are needed to secure the party’s nod.
“This story line is nonsense,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said. “The mood is upbeat. Senator Clinton is working hard every day to do well in Texas and Ohio and secure this nomination.”
Her campaign also sought to put a positive spin on her melancholy debate closer on Thursday, when she reached out to shake Obama’s hand, saying: “You know, no matter what happens in this contest — and I am honoured, I am honoured to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honoured. … We’re going to be fine.”
Wolfson explained that the exchange showed “why Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States. … Her strength, her life experience, her compassion. She’s tested and ready.” The next crucial nominating contests are in Ohio (141 delegates) and Texas (193 delegates) — states that even her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had admitted are key to her campaign’s survival. Polls released this week have suggested Obama and Clinton are in a dead-heat in Texas. Real ClearPolitics’ average of Ohio polls, however, has Clinton at 50 per cent and Obama at 42 per cent there.
On the Republican side, presumptive nominee John McCain attempted to distance himself from a New York Times report that alleged some of his aides suspected improper conduct between the Arizona senator and a younger female lobbyist.
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