Reply #19: OBAMA DEFENDS HIS MAILINGS [View All]

[leeno]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/23/695284.aspx

Obama vigorously defended two negative mailers dropped in Ohio that Hillary Clinton says came “straight out of Karl Rove’s playbook.”

The mailing, one on NAFTA and the other on health care, raised the ire of the New York senator, who forcefully pushed back against them at a press conference earlier today.

Saying that the mailers had been out for weeks, Obama suggested that Clinton’s fiery reply this morning may be a political stunt rather than a genuine reaction. “I am puzzled by the sudden change in tone. Unless these were just brought to her attention, it makes me think that there’s something tactical about her getting so exercised this morning."

He added: “And unlike some of the attacks that have been leveled about me that have been debunked by news organizations, these are accurate. Sen. Clinton, as part of the Clinton Administration, supported NAFTA. In her book, she called it one of the Administration’s successes. And we point that out in a state that has been devastated by trade and has been deeply concerned about the position of candidates on trade.”

Obama was pressed on his health-care mailer, which when it appeared weeks earlier had been compared to the Harry and Louise ads that scuttled Clinton’s attempt to pass universal health-care in 1993. The ad that Clinton held in her hand and emphatically gestured with during her press conference was the health-care mailer.

“I have seen the mailer and I completely dispute that characterization. There are many people who support Senator Clinton who support health-care mandates who didn’t like the characterization of it. But there wasn’t anything inaccurate in what was said,” Obama said.

He went on to say that there was nothing “factually inaccurate” about the mailer.

“What think Senator Clinton would argue is that she doesn’t like how the mandate is characterized, because she wants to characterize it as universal health care. Just like I don’t like her characterizing my plan as leaving 15 million people out. But there’s nothing in that mailing that is inaccurate. When she says she’s going to mandate health care, and her own experts have indicated this a mandate does not work unless you propose harsh stiff penalties on those who don’t purchase it and that’s what we point out in this mailer.”

The mailer in question, however, appears to be deceptive in that it quotes a college newspaper in its harshest attack on Clinton. The quote reads: “…forcing those who can’t afford it to buy health insurance…,” which leaves out the fact that Clinton’s plan, like Obama’s, has strong subsidies.

It's worth noting, though, that the Clinton campaign has also sent out mailers distorting Obama's positions. One used Obama’s “present” votes in the Illinois state legislature to claim that he is anti-choice, a false assertion. And another attacked Obama on Social Security, claiming that he would raise taxes on working families a “trillion dollars.”