Barak Obama: Hillary Clinton 'is just like Bush'
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Barak Obama: Hillary Clinton ‘is just like Bush’
By Toby Harnden, in Perry, Iowa
Daily Telegraph/UK
Last Updated: 8:53am GMT 01/01/2008
Barack Obama unleashed a blistering attack on his Democrat rival
Hillary Clinton yesterday, branding her “just like George W Bush”.
The cutting comparison came as he launched a last-ditch push to win
over Democrats in Iowa, who vote on Thursday in their caucuses, the
first stage of the presidential nomination process.
Barack Obama on the campaign trail in Iowa, where he launched
blistering attacks on his rival, Hillary Clinton
Now, his lofty rhetoric about hope and change is laced with sharp,
sarcastic jabs at Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill, who have sought to
paint him as a naïve lightweight who doesn’t have the stomach for a
fight.
At a Des Moines rally that drew in more than 1,000 people despite
freezing weather, Mr Obama abandoned his previous timidity and, while
not mentioning her by name, aimed barbs straight at the former First
Lady. “We can’t afford a politics that’s all about terrorism and
ripping people down rather than lifting a country up,” he said. “We
can’t afford a politics based on fear that leaves politicians to think
the only way they can look tough on national security is to vote and
act and talk just like George W Bush.”
Mr Obama is locked in a three-way struggle with Mrs Clinton and John
Edwards in Iowa. Polls, which are notoriously unreliable in the
Midwestern state, indicate Mrs Clinton might have edged just ahead in
the past week.
Bill Clinton, now campaigning in Iowa for his wife every day, has
raised the spectre of another September 11 style attack and stated that
only Mrs Clinton had the experience to deal with a terrorist atrocity.
Mr Obama blasted back by suggesting that this was reminiscent of the
tactics of Mr Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in 2004 and amounted
to “using 9/11 as a way to scare up votes”.
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The slap at Mrs Clinton ‘ who voted to authorise the Iraq war ‘ was no
accident. Yesterday, at a smaller rally in rural Perry attended by
about 250 people, Mr Obama used almost exactly the same words.
When asked by The Daily Telegraph about the increasing sharpness of Mr
Obama’s words, David Axelrod, his chief strategist, said: “I don’t
think they were sharp. I think they were well chosen.”
He added that Mrs Clinton was “100 per cent known” but “70 cent or more
of voters in this state have consistently chosen other alternatives so
there’s obviously a market for something different out there.
The Obama campaign has been angered by the negative attacks from
Clinton operatives, most notably the suggestion ‘ widely seen as a
racial smear ‘ that he had been a cocaine dealer. Clinton supporters
have also circulated emails suggesting Mr Obama is a radical Islamist.
The Illinois senator took on Mr Clinton directly, disputing the former
president’s contention that a vote for Mr Obama would be to “roll the
dice” on America’s future. “The real gamble,” he thundered, “is to keep
on doing the same things with the same folks over and over again and
expecting something different.” A central argument of the Obama
campaign is that electing the former First Lady would mean a Bush or a
Clinton running the country for 24 years without interruption. The
Clintons, the Illinois senator said, were Establishment creatures who
resented someone new to Washington.
He lampooned their view of him as: “We need him in Washington longer to
stew him and season him a bit and boil all the hope out of him so he
smells just like every other politician.” Mrs Clinton’s repeated use
recently of the word “change” ‘ the theme of the Obama campaign since
the start ‘ was also mocked.
“This change thing must be catching on because I notice now suddenly
everybody’s talking about change. `I’m for change, me too, I want to
change things, I’m a change person’. “That’s good. We want everybody to
be for change. But you have to ask yourself now with basically four
days left is who can best deliver change.”
Any prospect of a Clinton-Obama ticket for the presidency and
vice-presidency has evaporated but the Illinois senator’s supporters
are convinced he can do better than the second slot.
“We have to get rid of the dynasties in this country,” said Carol
Hofmann, celebrating her 64th birthday by going to the Obama rally in
Des Moines. “We’ve had the Bushes, we’ve had the Clintons.
“The candidate people see as the front runner is very, very divisive
and I think she’s dangerous. I voted for Bill Clinton. She wouldn’t
have been elected a senator without him. She sure wouldn’t be running
for president if she wasn’t married to him.” She added: “She probably
has a list a mile long of people she would like to stick the knife
into.” Few would doubt that Mr Obama is now on that list.