Obama and Edwards Step Up Attacks on Front-Runner Clinton

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Obama and Edwards Step Up Attacks on Front-Runner Clinton
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 26, 2007; Page A04

Toiling behind Hillary Rodham Clinton in most national polls, her two main rivals in the 2008 Democratic presidential field, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards, are increasingly seeking to contrast themselves with the New York senator.

The sharpest attacks are coming from Edwards, who in a speech in Hanover, N.H., on Thursday took several thinly veiled swipes at both Clinton and her husband's administration. Invoking the 1990s controversy over the Clintons' allowing major campaign donors to stay overnight at the White House, Edwards declared, "The Lincoln Bedroom is not for rent."

And although Edwards did not name Clinton in that speech, Obama was more direct at a house party in Portsmouth, N.H., earlier in the week. "This last question I will prompt myself, and that's, 'Why you instead of Hillary?' That's in the back of minds of a lot of people," Obama said, the Associated Press reported. The candidate went on to describe what he argues is his ability to rise above the kind of divisive politics that has defined the past several years, something he says Clinton cannot do.

"Hillary is the front-runner in this race, and as we get closer and closer to Iowa, that distance looks further and further away," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist....

***

In distinguishing themselves from the front-runner, Obama and Edwards are portraying Clinton as yesterday's news. Democrats looking for a restoration of the 1990s have aspirations that were "rooted in nostalgia," Edwards said, while Obama says he's part of a new generation that will change politics....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082501112.html?hpid=topnews

[Jim__]

1. "Hillary is the front-runner in this race ...

... and as we get closer and closer to Iowa, that distance looks further and further away," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic strategist....

Anybody know what the hell that means?

[MethuenProgressive]

2. When Edwards is asked if it is Clinton he means, he backpeddles.

Cowardly, in my opinion.