Great stuff in this Obama interview with the San Fran Chronicle!

[beachmom]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/18/MNSNUH7GC.DTL&type=politics

Barack Obama, in S.F., takes on the Clintons

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama launched a direct broadside Thursday at New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's claim that she is the experienced Democratic candidate who is "ready to lead" - saying that her experience is "presumed through osmosis, as a consequence of having been first lady."

"Sen. Clinton keeps touting her experience but has no management experience that I can see in her resume," he said in a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle editorial board in San Francisco.

Obama argued that the success of his own presidential campaign, "where I went from zero, starting from scratch, to compete with a legendary political organization 20 years in the making, built by a former president ... is not an accident."

"It shows my capacity to put together a team and point it in a direction that I think is important," Obama said, adding he has illustrated "the skill sets that are required to move the country."

...

Asked his reaction to an angry outburst by the former president - who in Oakland Wednesday suggested the at-large system was "rigged" - Obama laughed.

"This caucus process was designed by the Democratic Party of Nevada in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee," said Obama. "I, as somebody who's not part of the establishment of the Democratic Party, had no say in the rules ... (but) individuals like Harold Ickes, Clinton's key adviser, were a part of making these rules. And some of the people who filed the lawsuit were a part of making these rules.

"President Clinton now suggests they didn't understand the rules that they designed," Obama said. "This is coming from the campaign of extraordinary detail and thoroughness and experience.

"But somehow, they didn't know what these rules were," Obama said. "Six days before the caucus - two days after I received the endorsement of the Culinary Workers (Union), suddenly these rules are grossly unfair and a violation of 'one person, one vote.' And a lawsuit is filed that would disenfranchise mostly Latino maids, dishwashers and bellhops."

Obama said that was "an implausible argument before the court rules. I am glad the court bought none of it. I think it took about an hour for the court to decide that this lawsuit had no merit.

The whole article is great. Check it out.