Undecided voters watch Obama-Clinton fracas
Clinton revives Rezko charge as South Carolinians keep mum about voting
![]() Willis Glassgow / AP Former president Bill Clinton speaks to a group of students at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. on Thursday. |
|
Video |
Obama holds slim lead in S.C. Jan. 25: Polls show Barack Obama losing more white voters to John Edwards as the Democratic candidates make their last big push before the South Carolina primary. NBC's Lee Cowan reports. Nightly News |
Video: Decision '08 |
House conducts non-impeachment impeachment hearing July 25: Though it was technically a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Executive Power and its Constitutional Limitations” the theme of the day was violations by the Bush Administration that amount to impeachable offenses. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr, who testified at the hearing, talks with Countdown’s Keith Olbermann. |
INTERACTIVE |
Candidate Brain Trusts See who is in the inner circles of the campaigns of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. NBC News |
Slide show |
more photos |
Slide show |
more photos |
Video: Decision '08 |
House conducts non-impeachment impeachment hearing July 25: Though it was technically a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Executive Power and its Constitutional Limitations” the theme of the day was violations by the Bush Administration that amount to impeachable offenses. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr, who testified at the hearing, talks with Countdown’s Keith Olbermann. |
INTERACTIVE |
Candidate Brain Trusts See who is in the inner circles of the campaigns of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. NBC News |
Slide show |
more photos |
Slide show |
more photos |
Two married couples, the Obamas and the Clintons are battling it out over who should be the nominee.
Making the point that South Carolina has become a referendum on Bill Clinton was the e-mail from Michelle Obama that popped into inboxes exactly at the moment the former president started speaking Thursday in Walterboro, S.C. (population 5,545).
“In the past week or two, another candidate's spouse has been getting an awful lot of attention,” said Michelle Obama as she asked for a $50 donation to her husband’s campaign.
“We knew getting into this race that Barack would be competing with Senator Clinton and President Clinton at the same time.… What we didn't expect, at least not from our fellow Democrats, are the win-at-all-costs tactics we've seen recently.”
'We don't play the fear card'
The Obama camp has adopted the tone of the victim who remains high-minded despite the injuries they feel they’ve suffered.
“We don’t play the fear card, or the race card or the anger card,” said Kevin Puleo, Obama’s regional field director as he tried to warm up the crowd waiting to hear Barack Obama speak Thursday night in North Charleston.
“I was convinced the American people were hungry for something new, they don’t want a politics that’s all about tearing people down,” Obama himself told the crowd later.
Obama told the crowd, “Some of my opponents say, ‘Oh, he talks pretty, he’s always talking about hope, he’s so naïve, he’s idealistic, he’s a hope-monger, it’s a fairy tale.”
|
It was a reference to Bill Clinton’s calling Obama’s explanation of his stance on the Iraq war “a fairy tale.”
Eight hours later, Hillary Clinton in her interview on NBC's TODAY Show Friday morning, played two different hands simultaneously.
One hand: “Our campaign has to stay focused on the legitimate differences between us.”
The other: the Rezko card.
Who knew Rezko and for how long?
Clinton brushed off a photo that surfaced from the 1990s of her and her husband standing next to long-time Obama campaign fundraiser Tony Rezko, who is set to go on trial next month in Chicago on corruption charges.
Hillary Clinton attacked Obama’s relationship with Rezko to whom she referred as “a slum landlord” in the Democrats’ debate Monday night.
“I don’t know the man (Rezko); I wouldn’t know him if he walked in the door; I don’t have a 17-year relationship with him,” Clinton told Matt Lauer. “There’s a big difference between standing somewhere, taking a picture with someone you don’t know and haven’t seen since, and having a relationship that the newspapers in Chicago have been exploring.”
|
Earlier Friday morning in an interview with CBS, she seemed to apologize for Bill Clinton’s uncurbed enthusiasm in attacking Obama.
“He gets excited; he gets really passionate about making the case for me. He said several times yesterday that maybe he got a little bit carried away.”
Click for related content |
'Just a hired hand'
To a voter in Walterboro Thursday who asked about Hillary Clinton’s position on states’ workers’ compensation funds, Clinton said he didn’t know the answer. “I’m very scrupulous; I won’t say what her position is” if he doesn’t know for sure. Then he added, “I’m just a hired hand here” — which drew a laugh from the crowd.
Later he told another questioner, “I’m out of politics now.”
Here in South Carolina voters have been paying attention to the four battling spouses. Janet Sawyer, an émigré from New Hampshire to South Carolina, who came to hear Clinton speak in Walterboro, said, “I’ve met Hillary. I really like her; she’s so darn smart it’s scary, but so is Barack; he’s as brilliant as she is. He has my heart and she has my head. The trouble is Hillary comes with too bloody much baggage.”
As for Bill Clinton, “He’s really messing things up here. I got ticked off at him at one point. He was not making Hillary look good. He should not engage in arguments with people.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
- Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM DECISION '08 |
| Add Decision '08 headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links









