Obama camp says Clinton's acts from 'desperation'

[babylonsister]

Obama camp says Clinton's acts from 'desperation'

by Jill Zuckman

On the same day that Sen. Hillary Clinton discovered that she had completely lost her lead in New Hampshire, one of her chief supporters questioned whether Sen. Barack Obama could win a general election because of his past marijuana and cocaine use.

The questions raised by Bill Shaheen, Clinton's New Hampshire co-chair, substantially upped the ante in the ongoing back-and-forth between the two campaigns over which candidate is less electable in a general election.

Shaheen told The Washington Post that Republicans would jump on Obama's "drug use" and said it would lead to more questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."

Obama's campaign manager descried the salvo as borne of desperation.

"Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the 'fun part' of this campaign, and now she's moved from Barack Obama's kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls," said David Plouffe.

"Senator Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he's talked about the lessons he's learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country," Plouffe said. "He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people."

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http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/obama_camp_says_clintons_acts.html