January 16, 2008
Posted: 02:00 PM ET
Clinton is taking aim at Obama's management style.
(CNN) — Hillary Clinton is jumping at recent comments from rival Barack Obama during which the Illinois senator seemed to suggest he isn't exactly a details guy. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, the New York Democrat said she was "taken aback" by Obama's admission that he wouldn't act like a "Chief Operating Officer" if he was elected president. "I think it’s important that we have a president who understands that you have to run the government," she said. Obama told an editorial meeting with the Reno Gazette-Journal Monday that he has a "pretty good sense of my strengths and my weaknesses." “I don’t think there is anybody in this race who can inspire the American people better than I can, and I don’t think there is anybody in this race who can bridge differences … better than I can," he said. “But I’m not an operating officer. Some in this debate around experience seem to think the job of the president is to go in and run some bureaucracy. Well, that’s not my job. My job is to set a vision of 'here's where the bureaucracy needs to go.'" Then, at the Democratic debate Tuesday night, Obama seemed to suggest he tends to be disorganized. "I ask my staff never to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it, because I will lose it. And my desk in my office doesn't look good. I've got to have somebody around me who is keeping track of that stuff,” said Obama. Speaking Wednesday, Clinton said the presidency requires someone who is "hands on." "We all need to be inspirational and set goals, and I’ve been doing that throughout this campaign. We need to set big goals for our standing in the world, for our economy, to deal with energy and health care and so much else that is really on the minds of the people who talk to me as I go in and out of their homes, Peter. That’s what they’re talking to me about,” she said. "After you set the goals and you give the speeches, you go back to the White House and you start holding people accountable and you want to know what they’ve done today to help the American people," added Clinton. "You’ve got to take on this government, you’ve got to run this government, you can’t leave it to others. – CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney Filed under: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton
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