February 23, 2008
Posted: 03:06 PM ET
Clinton is upset with two mailers the Obama campaign is sending out in Ohio. (Photo credit: AP) CINCINNATI (CNN) – Sen. Hillary Clinton, needing wins in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio to overtake Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, ramped up her criticism of Obama Saturday, accusing his team of negative campaign tactics "straight out of Karl Rove's playbook." Clinton addressed two mailings the Obama campaign distributed in Ohio — one that lambasts her position on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed into law, and another that criticizes her proposed health-care plan. "I have to express my deep disappointment — he is continuing to send false and discredited mailings with information that is not true to the voters of Ohio," she said, shaking the mailings to punctuate her remarks. The NAFTA mailer accuses Clinton of switching her position on the trade agreement, saying the senator from New York was a "champion" for NAFTA while first lady, but now opposes it. The mailer on health care was "reminiscent of the health insurance industry's attack on what we tried to do the last time we went after universal health care," Clinton said. It says her proposal would force everyone to buy health insurance, whether they could afford it or not, a charge Clinton vehemently denied. "Sen. Obama knows it is not true that my plan forces people to buy insurance even if they can't afford it," she said. The mailers are "blatantly false and yet he continues to spend millions of dollars perpetuating falsehoods. That is not the new politics that the speeches are about," she said. "It is not hopeful; it is destructive." She added, "Shame on you, Barack Obama — it is time that you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That is what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio and let's have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign." Obama spokesman Bill Burton denied Clinton's assertions that the mailers were false. Filed under: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||