Obama Launches New Attack Line: Clinton Copies My Votes

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is launching a new line of attack on Sen. Hillary Clinton, accusing the Democratic presidential frontrunner of mimicking Obama's votes.

For the first time, Obama aides have publicly charged that Clinton waits for Obama to weigh in on controversial issues before taking the same stand, often to avoid creating disagreements that could be used as campaign ammunition.

"Democratic leaders are starting to count on Barack Obama for delivering two votes in the Senate - his and Senator Clinton's," Obama's spokesperson Ben Labolt told the Huffington Post on Thursday.

The comments echoed remarks on Wednesday by Obama's communications guru David Axelrod, who was asked on Hardball whether the senator would have voted for the contentious Kyl-Lieberman resolution -- which designates Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization -- had he not been on the campaign trail.

"Absolutely not," Axelrod declared. "He made that clear that day. And I venture to say that had he been there and voting on that perhaps Senator Clinton would not have voted that way either because, you know, Chris, lately every time he votes, she seems to vote after him, and seems to vote the same way. So maybe we could have spared her some of the difficulties."

The attack line reflects the increasingly aggressive campaign strategy that Obama has telegraphed, and plays into a larger critique that Clinton places caution over principle on the road to the White House. The Clinton campaign dismissed the accusation, though no officials would respond on the record.

In the past two months, as reported by ABC News, Obama did come out in his opposition to both Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general and Iraq War funding hours before Clinton. In May, moreover, Clinton was behind Obama in declaring her support for cloture on the high-profile Reid-Feingold amendment, which would have ended combat operations in Iraq within a year

It's not certain that Obama influenced Clinton's stance on any of these topics. And on the Lieberman-Kyl amendment as well as a resolution condemning MoveOn.org for their critical ad of Gen David Petraeus, Clinton cast a vote while Obama didn't.

"The fact is Barack Obama opposed giving the President the authority to go to Iraq and on Kyl-Lieberman he opposed giving the President a blank check on Iran," Labolt told the Huffington Post, when asked about these absences. "And on the day of the vote he issued a very clear statement again disagreeing with Sen. Clinton."

Comments

[Colin742]

Did Obama or his advisers really say Hillary is "copying" his votes? Pathetic, Childish.

[YouThinkAndTalk]

Hillary and Obama, wear yourselves out. Edwards is coming.

[Centauri]

According to CNN this evenings all the senators including Obama were informed the day before the Iran vote. Obama left for NH next day fully knowing that the vote was scheduled. Now he and his campaign are lying that he missed the vote because he did not know about it.

[Qbear]

OBAMA to catagorize exactly how whiney and wimpy that "Hillary is copying my vote" crud was,

it made Hillary go limp

[Truthwarrior]

Oh, how to begin...? For any of you who don't know, this website, just like both sides of the supposedly democratic process, receives large somes from AIPAC. The purpose? To keep mainstream America (and many people posting here) under the illusion that the fake duality of this faux republic actually has any relation to the ideals of its founders. Many posters here are actually actively encouraged to particpate in this website via covert financial incentives in order to perpetuate this illusion. Huffington herself is as much under the spell of AIPAC as Pelosi. As a result, this website is as actively involved in political deceit as those against whom it feigns idealogical opposition. Of course, those less astute victims of the seige on our Constitution (either through the tactics of AIPAC or its associates) will be the first to feel the pain that their own ignorance has afforded them, and thus will quickly strike their keyboards in hollow, shameful expletive. But it is not important. There is a very passionate personage within this country to whom the Constitution and Bill of Rights means as much as it was indeed originally intended. No pretence of Republican versus Democrat in order to further the funding of treasonous schemes funded by foreign governments will remove our focus. Our founding Fathers' purposeful intent is branded in our hearts and the fury of their vision will scorch any who stand against it. You know who you are.

[Truthwarrior]

Oh, how to begin...? For any of you who don't know, this website, just like both sides of the supposedly democratic process, receives large somes from AIPAC. The purpose? To keep mainstream America (and many people posting here) under the illusion that the fake duality of this faux republic actually has any relation to the ideals of its founders. Many posters here are actually actively encouraged to particpate in this website via covert financial incentives in order to perpetuate this illusion. Huffington herself is as much under the spell of AIPAC as Pelosi. As a result, this website is as actively involved in political deceit as those against whom it feigns idealogical opposition. Of course, those less astute victims of the seige on our Constitution (either through the tactics of AIPAC or its associates) will be the first to feel the pain that their own ignorance has afforded them, and thus will quickly strike their keyboards in hollow, shameful expletive. But it is not important. There is a very passionate personage within this country to whom the Constitution and Bill of Rights means as much as it was indeed originally intended. No pretence of Republican versus Democrat in order to further the funding of treasonous schemes funded by foreign governments will remove our focus. Our founding Fathers' purposeful intent is branded in our hearts and the fury of their vision will scorch any who stand against it. You know who you are.

[mikegoodyearaz85338]

Haven't you figured it out yet. When Hillary votes ot talks the only thing she considers is what is best for her. She never stands on principle or what is right. That is why she will be a terrible President. She cares about nobody but herself.

Whitewater, Travelgate, Pardongate, FBI Filegate, illegal campaign contributions ....it goes on and on. All these things have one thing in common. They screwed others while giving the Clinton's power and money.

[edgemo]

Great. The desperate attacking the political opportunist. Time to look down past the front runners....

[Bulbul]

Obama needs to get off his self rightous act and prepare himself for the real attacks if he ever gets nominated. He is becoming less and less electable by his own fault. To us the voters, this juvenile behavior got to stop, talk about the issues Obama , not Hillary ! After a while it becomes annoying and stale.

[forpeace]

*

I do not care for Hilary, but it seems like Obama is getting more desperate every day!

*

[lafrance]

I noticed this a year ago when obama was on his book tour. Because of all the publicity and president talk, suddenly hillary re-releases her old book and launches 'a book tour'. I thought it strange but, she kept doing whatever he did.
that is when I knew what her little game was, even before either one announced their run.
After Obama announced in Feb., it was noted in the newspaper that she kept coming to where he has been campaigning, following his every stop, I suppose to blunt the excitement of wherever he went. It was so odd.

[lornejl]

Dem strategists have to be the most overpaid people on the planet, god damn are they stupid. Obama, stand for something clear, like ending the war on your first day in office, single payer national health care,habeous corpus. Its not brain surgery, make a clear stand , geez.

[MichaelJames]

Let us dispense with the erroneous assertion that Obama was ducking the vote on Kyl-Lieberman. The official transcript is below (can’t seem to get a link to work, but search for it at http://thomas.loc/gov):

"Mr. REID. Mr. Chairman, there will be no more votes tonight. We have tried to work something out on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment and the Biden amendment. We have been unable to do that.

We have been very close a few times, but we have just been informed that Senator Biden will not have a vote anytime in the near future. There will not be a vote on the other one anytime in the near future. We hope tonight will bring more clearness on the issue."

So, based on this, Obama leaves to go to New Hampshire and campaign. He subsequently is unable to get back in time to vote since he is notified only one hour before the vote is to take place. Oh, and by the way, Harry Reid's son is a paid staff member for Hillary Clinton. See the link below. He's the Clark County Commission Chairman and his name is Rory Reid.

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2008/clinton/clintonorgnv.html

I believe Obama released a statement not long after realizing he could not get back in time opposing the measure.

Hillary is certainly trying to blur any distinctions between herself and Obama while at the same time propagating the fallacy that she has more experience. She copies Obama whenever she can on votes unless she feels a need to do something to position herself for the general election.

Hillary has also borrowed "turn the page" from Obama as well as wanting to say "America is back" to our allies, much like she decided to borrow his position on negotiating with Iran after she lost that battle after one of the early debates.

[mikal214]

naa naa na boo boo.

come on....obama can't win a general election with cr#p like this. are you guys still sure he's your man?

i like him a ton but he's not ready.

[MNmommy]

What the hell is this, kindergarten? WTF with the "stop copying me" thing? It sounds like my kids fighting - isn't this a presidential campaign?