Starting Gate: Clinton Opponents Latch Onto Credibility Issue
"How many troops will she withdraw, and when will she withdraw them?" Edwards will ask. "All she's said is that she will meet with her generals within two months of taking office. That's not a plan. That's not even a real promise. It's the promise of a planning meeting. ... Senator Clinton is voting like a hawk in Washington, while talking like a dove in Iowa and New Hampshire. One of her advisors told the New York Times that was because she was shifting from primary mode to general election mode. Well, we only need one mode from our president – tell the truth mode all the time."
Edwards is slated to deliver those remarks in Iowa, where he campaigned over the weekend and continued ratcheting up his criticism of Clinton. Once again raising the issue of campaign donations Clinton has received from lobbyists. "The candidate who has raised the most money from the health industry - the insurance companies and the drug companies - is not a Republican. It is a Democrat," Edwards said. "And actually, this one is most startling to me, the candidate who has raised the most from the defense industry is not a Republican. It is a Democrat. And all those descriptions fit the same candidate - they're all Senator Clinton. If you actually believe that the system doesn't work and we have to change it, then you can't sit at a table with the people who are giving you that kind of money and negotiate at arm's length," he said.
It's the theme Edwards and Barack Obama have latched onto following Clinton's less-than-stellar performance in last week's debate, where she appeared to stumble on several issues, most notably on allowing illegal immigrants to have drivers licenses. Now, they're increasingly questioning whether Clinton means what she says. It's a point Obama made when he made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live." In the opening sketch, Obama showed up at a Halloween party hosted by actors portraying the Clintons. Asked why he was not wearing a costume, Obama replied, "You know, Hillary, I have nothing to hide. I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween."
Thompson Won't Dump Friend … Yet: Fred Thompson said Sunday he will not throw campaign adviser Philip Martin "under the bus" after the Washington Post revealed Martin's criminal past. Thompson said he learned of Martin's conviction for cocaine-trafficking and other charges on Saturday and noted that the activity occurred decades ago.
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Thompson said, "nobody's made any accusations that he's done anything illegal with regard to our campaign. … I know Phil is a good man. He is my friend. He is going to remain my friend. He didn't go to jail, he got probation, he's paid his debt to society and turned himself around and become a good, productive, successful citizen," Thompson said. Thompson said "I'm not going to throw my friend under the bus for something he did, you know, 25 years ago," but left open the possibility of separating his campaign from Martin. "I'll just have to figure it out," Thompson said.
Clinton Papers Set For Release: The Politico reports that thousands of pages of records from the Clinton administration are being readied for release, possibly in late January and may be made public soon after that. If so, the papers are almost certain to be a topic of the campaign but perhaps not until the nomination battle is wrapped up. Over 20 states will vote on February 5th, dubbed Super Duper Tuesday. In Iowa this weekend, Clinton addressed the issue of the Clinton library papers. "The National Archive controls and administers presidential records, that's what they do for every president. My husband has not withheld a single document. We have hundreds of requests that are being dealt with and are being processed as quickly as the archives can."
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