Obama: No surprises in my past, voters are "not interested in politics as a blood sport."

[jefferson_dem]

Obama: No surprises in my past
Don't bet on it, he says
By John McCormick

Tribune staff reporter

8:38 AM CST, December 16, 2007

WATERLOO, Iowa

Sen. Barack Obama says he has been so heavily covered by the news media in recent years that suggestions that there might be surprises in his background are off-base.

"I've probably been more reported on than any political figure in the country over the last year," he said during a news conference Saturday. "I hardly think that I've been underexposed during the course of this race."

The Illinois Democrat, in a campaign sprint across northern Iowa, was responding to recent suggestions from Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who has said there would be "no surprises" about her past if she were picked as the Democratic nominee.

Obama, meanwhile, said he doubts voters will punish him for use of marijuana and cocaine when he was in high school, an issue raised late last week by a Clinton campaign official who later resigned.

"What somebody does when they were a teenager, 30 years ago, is probably not relevant," he said. "I think people have pretty good judgment about that."

Obama said Clinton and her husband, Bill, had criticized the "politics of personal destruction" while in the White House, and voters are "not interested in politics as a blood sport."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-bama_finaldec16,1,850098,print.story

[earthlover]

1. It is really sad that the Hillary campaign so closely resembles the pack that attacked the Clintons

The old school attack politics seems to be backfiring on Hillary this time.

[ruggerson]

2. "I've probably been more reported on than any political figure in the country over the last year,"

So, he's been more reported on than Bush, Cheney, Giuliani and Clinton.

Right.