Obama Brushes Off Clinton's Attacks

From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton looked “in her element” at last night’s debate, which he described as a “roll out of the Republican’s campaign” against him in November.

“I have to say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” Obama said. “She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there. That’s alright. That’s her right. That’s her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit.”

While not completely ruling it out, Obama seemed disinclined to participate in another debate with Clinton before the North Carolina primary on May 6th.

“We had agreed earlier to a debate, Senator Clinton declined that,” he said. “We’ve now had 21 [debates], and look, the previous three, we did very well, so it’s not as if we don't know how to do these things.”

Obama spoke to a lively crowd at a town hall meeting here today, who cheered him on as he told them that he brushes off Clinton’s attacks.

“She’s only airing negative attacks on TV in Pennsylvania, like most places,” he said. “I understand that because that’s the textbook Washington game. That’s how our politics has been taught to be played.”

Obama vowed to respond to forthcoming attacks “sharply and crisply,” although he said he trying to show some restraint when addressing jabs from Clinton.

“If the Republicans come at me I will come right back at them,” Obama said. “I’ll be honest with you, it’s a little harder to do with a fellow Democrat because I’m trying to show some restraint. I wont have this much restraint with the Republicans.”

Check out the video below of how Obama reacts to Clinton’s attacks.