NYT: Clinton-Obama Duel Keeps Rocking

[Omaha Steve]

Source: New York Times

DES MOINES – Senator Barack Obama has had the state of Iowa essentially to himself this weekend, at least among the Democratic presidential hopefuls. These days, a solo visit seems a rarity, with candidates often practically stepping over one another here.


While Senator Barack Obama, pictured, met with supporters at Union Park in Des Moines, Iowa’s former governor and supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tom Vilsack, weighed in on the candidates’ feud. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/A.P.)

But barely an hour had passed after Mr. Obama’s final public event here today – his plane hadn’t even fired up its engines – when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign sent out an urgent notice to reporters: Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, would be holding a conference call to respond to Mr. Obama.

The issue at hand, not surprisingly, is the ongoing dispute between the two campaigns over whether the candidates would be willing to meet with hostile dictators (without preconditions) during their first year in the White House. At the debate in South Carolina last Monday, Mr. Obama said that he would. Mrs. Clinton said that she wouldn’t.
And the fury has escalated ever since.

Late Friday evening, the Clinton campaign sent out a column from the Miami Herald, featuring an interview with Mr. Obama that seemed to be slightly at odds with what he said during the debate. Here in Iowa, though, the column got little attention, so a conference call was hastily arranged with Mr. Vilsack, who was prepared to re-argue the weeklong feud.


Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/clinton-obama-duel-keeps-rocking/