Obama says Clinton campaign getting 'depressing'
Obama is taking issue with comments Clinton made at a recent Democratic debate. (Photo Credit: AP)
(CNN) - With only a day until the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, Barack Obama says the manner in which rival Hillary Clinton's campaign is being run is getting 'depressing."
In an interview that aired on ABC Monday morning, Obama said Clinton does not make him angry, but the Illinois senator took issue with how her campaign is being run.
"I find the manner in which they’ve been running their campaign sort of depressing lately," he said.
Obama specifically took issue with a comment Clinton made at a debate Saturday, when she suggested Obama and John Edwards were raising "false hopes."
"We don't need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered," she said. "The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I've already made."
Obama has derided Clinton on the campaign trail for the statement, and in the ABC interview, suggested it runs against the American "tradition."
"Sen. Clinton saying, 'don’t feed the American people false hopes. Get a reality check.' You know? I mean, you can picture JFK saying, 'We can’t go to the moon. It’s a false hope. Let’s get a reality check.' It’s not, sort of, I think what our tradition has been," he said.
Meanwhile, Clinton maintains she has a record of change, and said repeatedly over the weekend that she is a "doer" compared to Obama and Edwards who are "talkers."
The back and forth comes as several recent polls indicate Obama's win in the Iowa caucuses last Thursday has given him a bounce in the Granite State. A new CNN/WMUR poll released Sunday night shows Obama 10 points ahead of Clinton, 39 percent to 29 percent.
Related video: Clinton: 'I am a change agent'
Struggling GOP candidate to stay in the race
(CNN) - Underdog GOP presidential candidate Duncan Hunter lashed out at "knucklehead media executives" who did not include him in this weekend's New Hampshire primary debates, telling reporters he was staying in the race despite widespread expectations he would announce his withdrawal.
The conservative California congressman criticized debate organizers at FOX and ABC for not extending him an invitation when "guys with zero delegates" like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain were allowed to participate in the events, saying they "decided my campaign was over, and the lights would be shut out on my campaign.
"So here's my answer: I'm not going to quit. I'm staying in."
Hunter won a single delegate in Wyoming’s Republican presidential caucuses this weekend, but is barely registering in Granite State polls, and has faced persistent campaign cash woes. Debate organizers have said he was not extended an invitation to this weekend's events because he did not meet their minimum polling and fundraising standards for inclusion.
(Item updated to include Hunter's afternoon remarks.)
Big Obama crowds continue in Granite State
LEBANON, New Hampshire (CNN) - Massive crowds continued to show up for appearances by Barack Obama as he made a swing through northwest New Hampshire, reports CNN’s Carey Bodenheimer. In Lebanon Monday morning, an overflow of several hundred who could not make it into the venue were later addressed by the Illinois senator. The Lebanon police department told CNN’s Chris Welch that one man holding an Edwards sign was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Related video: Stakes high in New Hampshire
Related video: New poll sends shockwaves
Romney to make closing argument in two-minute ad
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican Mitt Romney has purchased two minutes of New Hampshire airtime Monday night to make his closing argument in the key primary state that could make or break his presidential hopes.
In the two-minute spot, Romney stresses his "change" theme that has been central to the closing stretch of his campaign, suggesting his chief rival in the state, Arizona Sen. John McCain, is a longtime Washington insider unable to fix its entrenched problems.
"There's a tide of change sweeping New Hampshire and America," Romney says in the ad. "Everywhere I go people say Washington is broken. And they know that those who've spent their careers in Washington can't change Washington."
"It's long past time to bring real change to Washington," he continues. "That's never going to happen if all we do is send the same people back to Washington to sit in different chairs."
Most recent polls indicate McCain has a slight edge over Romney with a day to go to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. A CNN/WMUR poll released Sunday night showed the Arizona senator up 6 points over Romney.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Edwards makes closing pitch in one-minute ad
(CNN) - John Edwards is making his closing argument in New Hampshire, airing a one-minute spot in a state where the fight between his two chief Democratic rivals has dominated voters’ attention.
Edwards is running a distant third among Granite State Democrats in the most recent CNN/WMUR poll with 16 percent support, behind Barack Obama at 39 percent and Hillary Clinton at 29 percent. He finished second in the Iowa caucuses, behind Obama and barely ahead of Clinton.
New Hampshire voters head to the polls Tuesday.
“I may be an underdog in this campaign, running against two candidates with $200 million between them,” says Edwards. “But the real underdogs are the middle class and the voiceless in this country, losing ground while CEOs pocket million dollar bonuses. And corporate lobbyists get their way in Washington. Exxon Mobil rakes in record profits, gets government handouts, and gas prices go through the roof.
“At the same time, 200,000 veterans, men and women who wore America’s uniform, will sleep tonight under bridges and on grates. We cannot simply replace a bunch of corporate Republicans with a bunch of corporate Democrats.”
He adds, “I know who the underdogs are in this fight. I know that the fight to save the middle class will be an epic battle, and I will never give up.”
Edwards has made his willingness to take on corporate interests a central theme of his presidential run.
–CNN’s Rebecca Sinderbrand
Republicans worried about Obama
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Hillary Clinton isn't the only one worried about Barack Obama's post-Iowa momentum. A former top Republican official tells CNN Obama could win a significant portion of the Republican vote in a general election, if he becomes the Democratic nominee.
The leading Republican strategist, who requested anonymity because this person advises a number of Republican presidential candidates, told CNN "I think Barack Obama is a potential Robert Kennedy or Reagan figure." And "in terms of raw political horsepower, he is the most electable of any of the Democrats and potentially more electable than Bill Clinton. If he ran the right campaign he could appeal to a substantial number of Republicans and Independents."
This person insists an Obama nomination isn't a done deal. "He could make a mistake. His people could get overconfident. He needs to continue to push his theme even as she continues to hit him on different issues."
In the days since he won the caucuses, the New York senator's campaign has hit Obama on a number of issues, including his decision to hire a former lobbyist to manage his New Hampshire campaign, and his past position on the Patriot Act. Former President Bill Clinton compared Obama's early position on the Iraq war to President Bush's, and national reporters were summoned to an urgent conference call because some callers on the 'Do Not Call' registry had received robo-calls from Obama's campaign that Clinton's staff alleges did not fully comply with election law.
Yet Obama now holds a 10-point edge over Clinton in the new CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire primary voters released last night, and an even larger advantage in some other surveys.
This top Republican explains that Obama "is incredibly nice, he's likable. People want to like him. He's the personification of bringing people together. He's the personification of unity. People like that and it works."
He says Senator Clinton "lacks a gut level connection" with voters. "I'd rather run [a Republican] against her because she turns out our base. He [Obama] doesn't have the baggage she has and he appeals to Republicans and Independents in this post-partisan way."
- CNN's Jessica Yellin
Paul: 'Fox will suffer'
(CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is striking back at Fox News for excluding him from Sunday’s Republican primary debate in New Hampshire.
“I think this is an awful embarrassment for Fox to do something like this,” says Paul. “I think they are making a mockery of the whole situation and I think they are going to suffer for it quite frankly because they’ve lost all credibility.”
Paul registered 10 percent support in the CNN/WMUR poll of the state’s GOP voters released this weekend – putting him in a statistical tie for third with Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani – and says this support should have secured him a spot in the debate, along with the fact that his campaign “raised more money than any other candidate on the Republican side in the last quarter.”
American Morning anchor Kiran Chetry gave Ron Paul a chance Monday morning to respond to some of the issues raised in Sunday night’s debate.
- CNN’s Emily Sherman
Huckabee hits back at Romney - again
(CNN) - GOP White House hopeful Mike Huckabee, who vowed late in the Iowa race to avoid an open battle with Republican rival Mitt Romney, is having trouble keeping his pledge. Just days after he pulled an Iowa attack ad aimed at Romney, and with only a few hours of campaigning left before New Hampshire voters head to the polls, he's bitterly lashing out at the former Massachusetts governor.
"I haven't gone after Mitt Romney. Actually, he's gone after me in billions of dollars of ads," says Huckabee. "There are a lot of distortions about my record that I wanted to try and clear up. I am not the one who's having these visions about marching with Martin Luther King and imagining having the NRA endorsement when I didn't."
Watch the entire interview with American Morning anchor John Roberts.
- CNN's Emily Sherman
Richardson: I have the experience to change
(CNN) - One day before the New Hampshire primary, democratic presidential contender Bill Richardson continues to tout his foreign policy experience in hopes of winning the support of New Hampshire’s undecided voters.
“What I say is, with Bill Richardson you get change and you get experience. You gotta have experience to change things. You gotta have a record. I’ve got a foreign policy record as U.N Ambassador as Energy Secretary, as a Governor,” says Richardson
Watch the entire interview with American Morning anchor John Roberts.
- CNN’s Emily Sherman
McGovern: Time to impeach Bush
WASHINGTON (CNN) - George McGovern, the Democratic Party's 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
And in an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is "far stronger" than the case made against former President Richard Nixon - the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up.
"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses," McGovern writes. "They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time.
"Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world," he continued.
McGovern, a former three-term senator who ran for president on a fiercely anti-war platform, also called the administration's policy in Iraq a "a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war" in violation of international law.
"This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949," he added.
But McGovern acknowledged there is little bipartisan support for an impeachment effort, blaming "superficial partisanship" among Republicans, and a "a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians."
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
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