Clinton, Obama Trade Blows On Life Experiences
The exchanges between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have become more pitched in recent weeks, but today the rhetoric reached a new level, with both candidates seeking to diminish the importance of each other's life experiences.
Wind and dense fog forced Clinton to skip an event in Shenandoah, Iowa on Tuesday. Though her private jet made two failed attempts at landing, Clinton still succeeded in talking to a thinned-out crowd at the Shenandoah fire station via speakerphone. But the phone, small crowd and 60-mile diversion to Omaha, Neb., didn't stop her from taking a shot at her top rival for the Democratic nomination.
"Now voters will judge whether living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face. I think we need a president with more experience than that," Clinton said over the phone. She was referring to Obama's claim, made at a rally in Clarion, Iowa, on Monday that spending four years in Southeast Asia as a boy had given him a greater understanding of foreign policy.
But Obama's campaign shot back, releasing a strongly-worded statement that explicitly links Clinton to the foreign policy of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, while also contesting Clinton's claim that her time representing the United States abroad as first lady would aid her in the presidency.
"Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have spent time in the White House and travelled to many countries as well, but along with Hillary Clinton they led us into the worst foreign policy disaster in a generation and are now giving George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "The real choice in this election is between conventional Washington thinking that prizes posture and positioning, or real change that puts judgment and honesty first."