Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Both defended handling of missteps, misstatements; directed sharp criticism
Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both defended their handling of missteps and misstatements on the campaign trail and directed sharp criticisms toward each other - during a potentially pivotal Democratic debate in Philadelphia on April 16 night.
With the race for the Democratic presidential nomination mired in a form of trench warfare that has left party leaders searching for a way to bring it to a conclusion before the party's late summer convention, Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama, D-Ill., began their first head-to-head encounter in nearly two months focused on political disputes rather than their relatively narrow policy differences.
Obama, who leads in the delegates needed to claim the nomination, fielded tough questions about his relationship with his former pastor, his patriotism and his description of small-town voters as "bitter," the latter a controversy that has engulfed his campaign for much of the past week.
Obama argued repeatedly that voters are smart enough to differentiate petty issues from important economic matters.
"So the problem that we have in our politics, which is fairly typical, is that you take one person's statement, if it's not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death," Obama said. "And that's what Senator Clinton's been doing over the last four days. And I understand that. That's politics. And I expect to have to go through this process.
But I do think it's important to recognize that it's not helping that person who's sitting at the kitchen table who is trying to figure out how to pay the bills at the end of the month."
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
With the race for the Democratic presidential nomination mired in a form of trench warfare that has left party leaders searching for a way to bring it to a conclusion before the party's late summer convention, Clinton, D-N.Y., and Obama, D-Ill., began their first head-to-head encounter in nearly two months focused on political disputes rather than their relatively narrow policy differences.
Obama, who leads in the delegates needed to claim the nomination, fielded tough questions about his relationship with his former pastor, his patriotism and his description of small-town voters as "bitter," the latter a controversy that has engulfed his campaign for much of the past week.
Obama argued repeatedly that voters are smart enough to differentiate petty issues from important economic matters.
"So the problem that we have in our politics, which is fairly typical, is that you take one person's statement, if it's not properly phrased, and you just beat it to death," Obama said. "And that's what Senator Clinton's been doing over the last four days. And I understand that. That's politics. And I expect to have to go through this process.
But I do think it's important to recognize that it's not helping that person who's sitting at the kitchen table who is trying to figure out how to pay the bills at the end of the month."
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: Barack Obama, campaign trail, debate, defended, Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, politics, sharp criticism, United states
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