Clinton blasts Obama campaign’s tactics

HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio – In perhaps her sharpest attack of the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her Democratic rival Saturday of “using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove’s playbook,” declaring at one point, “Shame on you, Barack Obama.”

Clinton’s comments represented a marked shift from just two days ago, when she and Obama engaged in a generally good-natured debate in Austin, Texas. The Illinois senator responded by noting “the sudden change in tone” and questioning Clinton’s timing, ahead of Sunday newspaper deadlines and with another debate three days away.

“It makes me think there’s something tactical about her getting so exercised this morning,” he said in Columbus, Ohio.

Clinton took strong exception to Obama mailings that criticized her views on health care and trade. Both mailings have been sent before by the Obama campaign, and her aides had expressed frustration about them, but the senator from New York had not previously addressed them in such a pointed way.

“I have to express my deep disappointment that he is continuing to send false and discredited mailings,” Clinton said, holding the fliers in her hand. “He says one thing in his speeches, and then he turns around and does this. It is not the new politics the speeches are about. It is not hopeful. It is destructive.”

She added, “Enough with the speeches and the big rallies and then using tactics right out of Karl Rove’s playbook. This is wrong, and every Democrat should be outraged. … Shame on you, Barack Obama.”

One mailing says that Clinton’s health care plan would force people to purchase insurance, even if they could not afford it. The other quotes a Newsday article that says Clinton regarded the North American Free Trade Agreement as a “boon” to the economy. The Long Island newspaper has acknowledged that was the word it chose to describe her view of the controversial agreement.

Obama defended the accuracy of the mailings, though he granted that it is “fair” to question that Clinton used the word “boon.” He said the mailing was produced before Newsday clarified that Clinton herself had not used the word.

But he added that the overall thrust of the publication stands.

“Senator Clinton, as part of the Clinton administration, supported NAFTA. In her book, she called it one of the administration’s successes,” he said. “We’re pointing that out in a state that’s been devastated by trade and is deeply concerned about the position of the candidates on trade.”

It is indisputable, Obama added, that Clinton’s plan would require people to buy health insurance even if they did not think they could afford it. She may not want the plan described that way, he said, just as he does not like her characterizing his plan, which does not include a mandate, as leaving out 15 million people.

“We have been subject to constant attack from the Clinton campaign except when we were down 20 points. They need to take a look at what they’ve been doing,” Obama said.

Clinton and Obama have agreed to a debate Tuesday in Cleveland, and Clinton hinted that she will use the opportunity to press her point.

“Meet me in Ohio, and let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign,” she said.

It is estimated that Clinton’s health care plan would cover more people than Obama’s in part because it would require people to purchase insurance, although it stipulates that Americans would have to pay only a certain percentage of their income for health care costs. If government subsidies are large enough, Clinton’s plan is not likely to force people to pay excessive amounts for health care, although it is difficult to define what is “affordable.”

Clinton has sought to distance herself from NAFTA throughout the campaign. In Cincinnati, she said that George H.W. Bush’s administration, not Bill Clinton’s, had “negotiated” the agreement. But her husband was an enthusiastic backer of NAFTA in the 1990s, helping get it passed despite opposition from some Democrats in Congress. Obama’s campaign on Saturday put out a long list of statements from the 1990s in which Hillary Clinton expressed enthusiasm about NAFTA.

Obama has won 11 straight contests in the Democratic campaign, heading into March 4 primaries in four states, including Ohio and Texas.