In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, Democratic presidential candidate, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Brian Jones)
Posted on 02/22/2007 3:25:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - A Hollywood-style brawl with the campaign of rival Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is the latest in a series of speed bumps tripping up Hillary Rodham Clinton's early presidential moves.
From the Clinton team's decision to criticize — and therefore publicize — producer David Geffen's complaints about both Clintons to increasingly skeptical questions about Sen. Clinton's nuanced explanation of her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war, it became apparent even a battle-tested front-runner can fall prey to missteps.
On top of that, voters were reminded of the downside of the first Clinton presidency.
"Her explanation for her Iraq vote sounds like the bad old days of Dick Morris triangulation," said Marty Kaplan, a political communications professor at the University of Southern California. Morris, once an influential adviser to both Clintons who has since turned against the couple, urged President Clinton to make policy decisions by splitting the difference on opposing views.
Kaplan added, "She may have overreacted to Geffen in a way that showed she's potentially thin-skinned. And the whole thing was a reminder that the issues of Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater are still out there."
The latest spat began Wednesday, when Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson called on Obama to disavow comments Geffen made in a New York Times interview.
Geffen, a onetime Clinton supporter who threw a $1.3 million fundraiser for Obama in Hollywood Tuesday night, criticized Bill Clinton for "reckless" behavior and called his wife polarizing and dishonest. He also took her to task for refusing to recant her Iraq vote.
Obama ducked the controversy, saying he shouldn't have to apologize for something he didn't say. But his spokesman Robert Gibbs noted that Geffen had raised $18 million for Bill Clinton and had been invited to one of the infamous Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers that helped define the Clinton fundraising excesses of the 1990s.
The brouhaha reflected the Clinton campaign's annoyance with what it perceives as the national media's lenient treatment of Obama.
The tit-for-tat between campaign operatives helped the story to explode nationally — overshadowing a Democratic presidential forum in Nevada that all the candidates except Obama attended.
Ironically, that lack of attention may have helped Clinton, who was pointedly jabbed by rival John Edwards for her unwillingness to revisit her war stance.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who also voted to authorize the invasion, has repeatedly apologized for his vote and said Clinton's decision not to do so was "between her and her conscience."
With the early 2008 voting contests in Iowa and New Hampshire still a year away, the current turbulence on the campaign trail is largely the province of hard-core political junkies.
Even so, the events of the last few days exposed the Clinton campaign's sensitivity to criticism of her husband's White House years the growing appeal of Obama — and to some extent, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — among the party's overwhelmingly anti-war activists.
"It's time for a different kind of leadership in this country," Edwards said, adding that voters want a president "who will tell the truth when they've made a mistake. Who will take responsibility when they've made a mistake."
Clinton has been challenged to explain her vote at nearly every campaign stop since entering the presidential field last month.
She tried to put the matter to rest in New Hampshire last weekend, saying voters could choose another candidate if her answer doesn't suffice. Nevertheless, the questions persist.
Another headache emerged last week when Clinton was asked to renounce comments about Obama made by one of her South Carolina supporters. State Sen. Robert Ford, who is black, said he was endorsing Clinton in part because Obama as a black presidential candidate would hurt other Democrats on the ballot.
"Every Democrat running on that ticket next year would lose — because he's black and he's top of the ticket," Ford said.
Ford later apologized as did a Clinton spokesman. But Clinton did not personally distance herself from it.
Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at California State University-Fullerton, said the Clinton campaign had seized on the Geffen comments as a prelude of what to expect later.
"This is a dress rehearsal, and it's peanuts compared to what Republicans will do in the general election," he said. "She knows she's got to come out and come out strong."
In this photo provided by the Las Vegas News Bureau, Democratic presidential candidate, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Brian Jones)
U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) waves at a Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum sponsored by AFSCME in Carson City, Nevada, February 21, 2007. REUTERS/Kimberly White (UNITED STATES)
Just when I think the Clintons can't get any more hypocritical . . .
Public education is an oxymoron. The elitists are running the asylums. This alone will loose my vote for any self appointed education expert.
Another handout to the needy.
A David Geffen Production,
No doubt. ;-) lol
They're hanging her out to dry early in the race - so when it comes up later, "we've already addressed that...".
This has nothing to do with "little bumps in the campaign trail". This has to do with major personality and electability issues with Hillary. She is simply a mean spirited bitch and no amount of MSM whitewashing or an agenda of guilting people into buying the female victimization card can hide that once she starts speaking. What got Bill Clinton in the whitehouse was his charm. She has none of it. Hillary and her handlers really have no clue how dispised she is outside of liberal alamos like NYC or SF.
bttt
its good to see them off message
Just another example of media bias. If a Republican lies, it is called lying, if a Democrat does it, it is called a "mistep" or a mistake, NEVER a lie! Scumbag liberals.
It's Dick Morris triangulation without Dick Morris. Hillary doesn't have the smarts to pull it off.
I'm actually beginning to doubt that she'll be able to win the Dem. nomination.
"Hitlery is uniting the country. Everybody hates her."..../sarcasm
It's an ebony and ivory thing... in the end they will make perfect Harmony, and have all the disparate minority groups under one, big happy tent.
"Clinton/Obama 2008 is the rat ticket."
There is no way that will happen.
Both their egos are too big to let it happen.
And she will be slowly exposed for what she is: A MArxist with all it's ugly trappings. The Swift Boat project will look puny if she gets the nomination. Hitlery has a lot of enemies and too much dirt under the rugs.
I dont know these libs are nasty
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