Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama continued their “bitter” war across Pennsylvania yesterday, whipping their supporters into frenzies at multiple rallies – and jabbing each other at every opportunity.
Obama, who boarded a royal blue Pullman train car, cast his rival as a political game-player who uses “slash and burn” tactics to win. He urged the country to “declare independence from the petty, trivial nonsense that passes for our political debate these days.”
But just hours later, his campaign revived Clinton’s “misspoken” memories about her 1996 trip to Bosnia – her most damaging campaign gaffe yet – by arranging a conference call with Bosnia war veterans who slammed the former first lady.
“Imagine the lack of moral authority [Clinton] has now to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day,” fumed Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart, who said the soldier in the tomb probably was killed by a sniper.
Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said the conference call was “part of the attack, attack, attack strategy of the Obama campaign” over the pre-primary weekend. The two candidates also traded blows over Obama’s latest TV ad, which blasts Clinton’s health-care plan and claims it would force people to buy insurance “even if they can’t afford it” – assertions that have been widely discredited, Clinton’s team responded.
Clinton, speaking in front of a West Chester, Pa., firehouse, implored voters not to turn the contest into “a throwaway election.” In a shot at Obama’s impressive crowd turnouts, she added that she didn’t want to “just show up and give one of those whoop-dee-do speeches and get everybody whipped up. I want everyone thinking.”
Also in the spotlight were Clinton’s recently revealed comments during a private fund-raiser that “liberal activists” like MoveOn.org had cost her some caucus victories on Super Tuesday.
“Clinton’s decision to trash Democratic activists . . . after publicly praising them when she needed their support is just another example of why she has such a serious credibility problem with the American people,” said an Obama spokeswoman.
It was just the type of acrimony that Democratic party leaders had hoped to avoid heading into the critical Pennsylvania primary this coming Tuesday – a contest Clinton is still favored to win, although Obama has whittled her advantage down to single digits.
According to the latest Zogby poll, Clinton has a five-point lead in the Keystone State, with 47 percent to Obama’s 42.