Obama: Clinton's Attacking Because "She's Feeling Down"
(CBS)
MILWAUKEE -- Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of going after him in recent days because she is “down."
“I understand that Senator Clinton periodically, when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal,” Obama said.
“But I think this kind of gamesmanship is not what the American people are looking for.”
However, throughout the press conference and at the following rally, Obama did not shy away from going after Clinton several times.
He accused Clinton of taking double the amount of special interest money than himself or McCain. “That’s not being a part of the solutions business. That’s being a part of business-as-usual in Washington.”
At the Milwaukee rally, Obama pounced on Clinton on issue after issue,
“Her supporting getting NAFTA didn’t get jobs to the American people, he supporting a bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of bankruptcy, that didn’t help them or the bills that were stacking up on their desks. Hollering at Republicans and engaging in petty partisan politics didn’t help health care get done.”
Obama and Clinton have also bickering over superdelegates, which increasingly look like they may be the deciding factor in determining the democratic nominee. Controversy has come up over Clinton backer, and superdelegate, Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, who the New York Times says will endorse Obama. However, both Lewis’s office and Obama deny knowledge of the endorsement.
Obama admitted to calling Lewis after the article was published but he did not speak to him directly. He argued that broader issue was that superdelegates should not override decisions made by voters.
“Our position has always been clear which is voters should make these decisions; whoever has the most pledged delegates at the end of this contest should be the nominee and that super delegates should ratify that decision by the voters.”
Obama was asked if he believes Clinton should receive the pledged delegates have yet to be awarded in Michigan and Florida, which were penalized by the Democratic National Committee for moving their primaries into January.
"Obviously it wouldn't make any sense, and I think even my six year old would understand it would not be fair for Senator Clinton to be awarded delegates when there was no campaign and in one of the states, at least, my name didn't appear on the ballot.”
