Text size:

Clinton pounces on Obama adviser's misstep

BY MARK HARRINGTON | mark.harrington@newsday.com

9:30 PM EST, March 7, 2008

Hattiesburg, Miss. - Hillary Rodham Clinton pounced on the verbal missteps of one of Barack Obama's top advisers, who resigned Friday after she called Clinton a "monster."

After an morning rally here Friday, Clinton met with reporters to deride comments by Obama adviser Samantha Power suggesting that Obama's commitment to pull troops out of Iraq in 16 months was a campaign promise that would be softened should he win the race.

Clinton said the comments "raise disturbing questions." She said she's been steadfast in her plan to begin withdrawing one to two brigades a month within 60 days of taking office.

Obama, in Wyoming, derided Clinton's efforts "to try to imply that I wasn't serious about bringing this war to an end. If it had been up to me, we would have never been in this war. It was because of George Bush, with an assist from Hillary Clinton and John McCain, that we got into this war."

As the crowd cheered at a crowded gym in Casper, Obama vowed to end the war next year. He said Clinton "doesn't have standing to question my position on this issue" because she voted to authorize the war in 2002, as did McCain.

Power also got in trouble for calling Clinton a "monster" and quit the campaign.

Asked about the comment, Clinton said, "I think Senator Obama did the right thing" in accepting Power's resignation.

But asked how the comment differed from her spokesman Howard Wolfson's remark Thursday likening the Obama camp's negative campaigning to the tactics of former special prosecutor Ken Starr, Clinton appeared caught off guard.

Then she said, "One's an ad hominem attack, the other [on Starr] is a historical reference."

The Power gaffe allowed the Clinton camp to divert the message from his edge in contests in Wyoming on Saturday and Mississippi on Tuesday. Her staff arranged two conference calls on the issue, and her unscheduled news conference here swamped news Web sites through the day.

Clinton also attacked Bush, seizing on the release of a dismal jobs report to attack his economic policies and emphasize her own solutions. She said reformed energy policies and a focus on new renewable energy businesses would create 5 million new jobs.

"We lost 63,000 jobs last month," she said. "The economic policies of the Bush administration are failures."

Obama responded to an earlier attack from Clinton, an ad she broadcast in Texas that suggested only she has the experience and mettle to handle a national crisis at 3 a.m.

"That is designed to feed into your fears," Obama said. "What do people think I'm going to do? I'm going to answer the phone."

Crowds for Clinton in Mississippi and Wyoming were large and enthusiastic, roused by the sudden national focus on their contests.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Haittiesburg resident Beverly Shaw, referring to the Democratic slate and the attention. She said she was undecided between Obama and Clinton. "There's not very much difference that I can tell."

Heather Sisneros of Cheyenne was also undecided, expecting to make her decision after an Obama speech Friday night. But she said she liked Clinton's speech at Laramie County Community College, adding, "She'd have my vote as a woman."

This story was supplemented with Associated Press reports.