Clinton, Obama Launch Negative Ads

Sen. Hillary Clinton is "scrambling" to stave off a defeat in Wisconsin, AP reports, and has launched her first negative TV ad hitting Obama for not debating her in the state.

The ad "begun Wednesday asks why Obama hasn't joined her in accepting an invitation to debate at Marquette University. 'Maybe he'd prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions,' the narrator says before claiming that only her health care plan covers everyone and only her economic plan freezes mortgage foreclosures." Watch it:

The Politico is reporting a new edge to Hillary's rhetoric:

"There is a big difference," she said. "I am in the solutions business, my opponent is in the promises business."

"We need real results, not more rhetoric. We need to get back in the solutions business. That's why I have a plan that will cover every American with health insurance, stop these foreclosures and put people back to work," she said, adding that she and edwards agreed on need for moratorium on foreclosures, while Obama doesn't.

"It's not the questions, it's the answers, and the answers get right to the heart of who is ready on day one to be the president and commander in chief of the United States."

"I have solutions to these economic challenges. The question today is does Sen. Obama? Because a plan that fails to provide universal healthcare, fails to address the housing crisis and fails to immediately start creating good paying jobs in America again, will not turn the economy around and provide the real relief that our people need," she said.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama has released a mailer in Ohio hitting Clinton on NAFTA. But the literature uses a quote that has been widely criticized as bogus.

It's not a direct quote from Clinton, but a paraphrase from a September 2006 article in Newsday -- "Clinton thinks NAFTA has been a boon to the economy, but voted against the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, saying it would drive jobs offshore." No evidence has surfaced that Clinton ever claimed that NAFTA was a "boon."

Comments

[venicesurfer]

HAHA, "HE'D RATHER GIVE SPEECHES THEN DEBATES"

AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH.

OBAMA IS A GREAT SPEAKER (ESPECIALLY WHEN SURRONDED BY THOUSANDS OF SUPPORTERS, ALL CHANTING HIS OWN NAME) BUT WHEN IT COMES TO DEBATES, HE IS A WEAK DEBATER. DEBATES MATTER. I REALLY FOCUS ON HOW WELL A CANDIDATE DOES IN DEBATES, NOT SPEECHES OR ROCKSTAR STATUS.

I ONCE SUPPORTED OBAMA UNTIL I SAW THE DEBATES. I HAVE SWITCHED TO CLINTON. CLINTON ISNT PERFECT, SHE IS CORRUPT, SHE HAS CRACKED IN DEBATES BUT GENERALLY DOES VERY WELL. SHE CAN WITHSTAND THE HARSHEST OF REPUBLICAN ATTACKS. NO ONE CAN PREDICT HOW OBAMA WILL REACT WITH ATTACKS SINCE HE HAS NEVER FACED SUCH ATTACKS FROM THE OTHER SIDE. BUT WITH HILLARY, WE KNOW. SHE'S BEEN THROUGH IT.

SHE WILL ALSO BEAT MCCAIN IN DEBATES SINCE MCCAIN IS A WEAK DEBATER ALSO. ALWAYS LOOKING DOWN WHEN BEING ATTACKED. NOT LOOKING IN THE OPPONENTS EYES. ALL WEAK SIGNS IN MY BOOK.

[williamg]

"SHE IS CORRUPT"

This is what Venicesurfer just said about Hillary. Yet, he will vote for her because he likes the way she debates. UNBELIEVABLE.

[nihilon x]

He is a firm believer in the power of dirty politics.

[amanda85]

""SHE IS CORRUPT"
This is what Venicesurfer just said about Hillary. Yet, he will vote for her because he likes the way she debates. UNBELIEVABLE."

Like I said many times, Hillary supporters are Republicans at heart...

[YRM]

Clinton's ad doesn't sound that negative. Pointing out plain facts is the heart of campaigning, but I think she gets more mileage from her RFK/Chavez spot and the Green Jobs montage with her nice voiceover. However, Obama manager David Axelrod is an entirely different story. He smeared both Obama's democratic and republican opponents in the 2004 senate election, using the men's divorce records, which he somehow got unsealed. (The G.O.P. helped a lot in getting Obama elected when they replaced Jack Ryan with Alan Keyes, who wasn't even a resident of Illinois when he filed his paperwork.) Obama's speechwriter is Beh Rhodes, brother of the head of the Fox news division. Rhodes has Obama constantly talking about Clinton's "high negatives" and "polarizing' effect, both terms coined by Karl Rove based on his bogus polling. (Saying a frontrunner is unlikeable simply defies reason.) Obama also claims in his stump speech that he doesn't accept PAC/special interest money but Clinton does. His donor record at opensecrets.org says otherwise. For more on the Rove/Obama connection, see the article I've posted at thecityedition.com

[SamanthaJaneSalem]

It looks like he's taken $25 from PACs!

Individual contributions

$101,429,472

99%

PAC contributions

$25

0%

Candidate self-financing

$0

0%

Federal Funds

$0

0%

Other

$741,170

1%

[barackoblogger]

He has a sound healthcare plan that has been recommended by the WSJ over Hillary's

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120234937353949449.html

He has been given a 100% voting record on pro-choice issues by NOW, though Hillary Clinton has tried to smear his record and lied to her supporters in New Hampshire about his record:

http://www.barackoblogger.com/search/label/pro-choice

http://www.barackoblogger.com/2008/01/response-to-clintons-attacks-on-obamas.html

He has been in the forefront of calling for a end to corruption in Washington, DC

http://www.barackoblogger.com/search/label/ethics

He won the top recommendation from the league of Conservation Voters for his environmental policy

http://www.barackoblogger.com/search/label/environmen

[Oldtt]

Why did the HuffPost prominently front-page Obama campaign literature claiming that Hillary said that NAFTA was a "boon" to our economy, when the linked article itself specifically dismisses this quote as inaccurate and chastizes the Obama campaign for using it? Is HuffPost now equally responsible for knowingly disseminating phony info against Clinton on behalf of Obama? Bias is one thing, but is HuffPost now officially part of the Obama campaign?

[Kane]

TIME: Do you think NAFTA was the right thing to do?

CLINTON: I think NAFTA was, in principle, a good idea to try to create a better trading market between Canada and the United States and Mexico. But I think the terms that it contained, and how it was negotiated under the Bush Administration and the failure to have any tough enforcement mechanism, like pollution on our border with Mexico, for example—

TIME: That was your husband's Adminstration, wasn't it? Because I recall a lot of debate about it not having labor standards and environmental standards.

CLINTON: But it was inherited. NAFTA was inherited by the Clinton Administration. I believe in the general principles it represented, but what we have learned is that we have to drive a tougher bargain.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1584649,00.html

Is anyone buying this?

[speakingtruth2power]

First NAFTA, then CAFTA, soon it's SHAFTYA.

[williamg]

"I have to say, though, that I was surprised that he took me on on economics because he has admitted—and by the way John McCain is a great American hero, a war hero we honor his service. But economics is not his strong suit. I mean he said, "I don’t understand economics very well," and after what he said, it shows, because his main economic philosophy is to continue the same tax breaks that George Bush has been perpetuating over the last seven years and that...John McCain criticized as irresponsible back when he wasn’t running for President
...Somewhere along the line he traded those principles for his party’s nomination and now he is for those tax cuts. So I just want to make everybody clear I am not....

So George Bush may not be on the ballot this fall, but his tax cuts and his economic policies are. And if John McCain wants to debate the specifics of how well the economy has worked for ordinary families over the last seven years, that is a debate that I am happy to have, because the American people know that Bush’s policies have not worked for ordinary Americans." - Barack Obama

[williamg]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

[speakingtruth2power]

Comparing the way that some Dems speak, off the cuff
to the way that most 'rethugs' speak (Bush) just isn't fair.
It's not nice to make fun of the verbally challenged, after
all, it was as much his mom's drinking as his own boozing.

[baghdadjoe]

MORE CLINTON CORRUPTION: Campaign Sold Donor List to Bill Clinton Financier

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18958566

Hillary Clinton's campaign apparently sold or rented its donor list to one of the largest brokerage firms for mailing lists in the country, InfoUSA, as reported by NPR.

[FiddleDD2]

When John McCain’s presidential campaign all but went broke, it borrowed money from its bank using its fundraising list as collateral.

Problem: McCain’s own privacy policy promises donors he won’t sell their information.


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7837.html

[oregonrain]

Maybe Hillary would like to comment on http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=2092529252

[FiddleDD2]

Gary Busey????!!!! LOL...that's all you need to know.

[FiddleDD2]

Sweet Jeebus...the lead story on NBC News? FISA Debacle/Illegal Spying--no. Iraq War--no. Roger Clemens testifying before Congress..Sweet Jeebus. The newscasters breathless asking..will Clemens be brought up on pergury charges? LOL.... the same Congress that can't hold the formed AG, Harriet Miers, Rove...anyone accountable for the lies told to us. The same Congress that can't investigate destroyed CIA tapes, illegal spying, or keep our civil rights intact...Sweet Jeebus they are USELESS.

[FiddleDD2]

Sweet Jeebus, I can't type tonight...

[GrouchoMarxist]

LOL...you're right, though. With everything that's going on in the world, they're riveted by Roger Clemens' testimony. No wonder the people of this country are so ill-informed that they voted for W twice.

[SUNRAI]

It was broadcasted on all three cable news networks...and it just proves how the government wastes the taxpayers money continually.

[Waitaminute]

Why isn't VIAGRA users not questioned. After all, it is an enhancement drug. Like steroids, it allows the man to keep going and going and going..... May even help build muscles in the back, that would not have been possible without it.

Which is worse, TAKING STEROIDS TO PLAY BALL OR TAKING VIAGRA TO SCORE.

[puffhost]

People like to bring up NAFTA while attacking Hillary, which is understandable since she is hitching her horse to his legacy.

That being said I think the lowest point in Clinton's presidency is his refusal to come to the aid of the Tutsis when they were being butchered in Rwanda. We had nothing to gain by interfereing except to be the good neighbors we claim to be.

If I could ask Ms Foreign Policy Guru Clinton one question it would be: What, if anything, did she do to try to influence an end to the Rwandan genocide? If she did nothing then why did she not think this to be important.

I think either our military helps the helpless or stays home to defend. Why go to Iraq and not Rwanda Hillary? We could have solved the genocide problem in an afternoon.

[bjorn]

If you think this kind of stuff is nasty -- where have you been? This is tame, the whole dem primary has been tame and relatively civil. Sometimes the Huffpost taglines are just as misleading as the Drudge Report. Thought you guys were better!

[HumeSkeptic]

Who's "you guys"?

[GrouchoMarxist]

He's right about one thing...despite the hype, this campaign has never gotten particularly nasty. I've seen far worse primaries.

[findingthetruth]

Get real----Hillary WILL dismiss YOU, a supporter, just as quickly as she dismissed caucus and primary states (of which she lost) if she doesn't RECEIVE A VICTORY. Perhaps that's why HER supporters are just as selfish in their determination of the demise of this COUNTRY.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

.

Hummmmm

If Obama wins I wonder how many nights in the Lincoln bedroom Oprah has bought?

Pretty ironic all the way around.

.

[baghdadjoe]

What makes you think that Obama is anywhere near as corrupt as the Clintons?

Everything I've seen and heard suggests that Obama is much LESS corrupt!

[HumeSkeptic]

Bought?

Man you are cynical today, Jack. What's up?

[Dragon5616]

LOL! Oprah could build her own White House with a gold-plated Lincoln bedroom!

[GrouchoMarxist]

Hahahahahaha! Can't argue with you there.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

And give out Rolex's and Cartier to all visitors!

.

[Waitaminute]

Whats so special about the lincoln bedroom? I don't think Oprah gives a shit about that room. And why did you have to say "Hummmm" Does that mean you were thinking?

[jrterrier]

So, Obama sends out a mailer with a bogus claim but you don't refer to it as a negative ad. In contrast, you refer to Hillary's challenge that Obama debate her as negative.

What gives?

The more you guys continue to treat her unfairly, the more die hard support she will get from those of us who see things as they are and not as the media wants to paint it.

[teahead]

Clinton don't seem to care about outsourcing:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/08/politics/main3244256.shtml