Just a couple of weeks ago, Sen. Hillary Clinton said she wasn't interested in attacking her opponents -- she was interested in "tackling the problems of America."| But that was then. |
| "Ahhhh! Yer fadder's moustache!" "Yer mudder wears army shoes!" "Yore mamma is so-o-o-o big...!" |
| No! Reeeeeally? When did that start? |
And as the race gets tighter, it's also getting nastier. "I think the country is wondering why two weeks ago [Clinton] said she wasn't going to attack Democrats and nine days later she was," Robert Gibbs, communications director for the Obama campaign, told CNN on Tuesday.
According to the Clinton camp, "the debate has moved." Pointing out differences in the two candidates' health care plans, Ann Lewis, senior advisor for the Clinton campaign, said, "We think these are important distinctions and think the public ought to know about them."
Those distinctions -- and many others -- have been brought up by both campaigns numerous times in recent days. The Clinton and Obama camps have started exchanging jabs over health care, fundraising and foreign relations experience -- and the punches are getting personal. "I think that I bring unique experience -- 35 years of experience, including the eight years in the White House where I was actively involved in issues both here at home and around the world," Clinton said this week.
But Obama was quick to disagree: "If she wants to tout her experience by having visited countries, that's fine. I don't think that [former Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright would think that Hillary Clinton was the face of foreign policy during the Clinton administration," Obama said.