Senator Barack Obama greeted Governor Deval Patrick at a campaign rally in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Saturday.
(jeff chiu/Associated Press)
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Governor Deval Patrick, wrapping up a two-day trip to Iowa to campaign for Senator Barack Obama yesterday, offered Iowans a pointed rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's assertion that she is the most experienced candidate in the race.
At a breakfast for Obama supporters, the Massachusetts governor was asked how he answers the argument that Obama has little experience. He pointed to the 18-year-old daughter of the hosts, Lisa and Amir Arbisser, both ophthalmologists.
"You've been around an ophthalmologist, but I'm not going to you for my eye work," he said, provoking laughter from the crowd of about 40 people. "There are a lot of things you get by being in the house, but you're not the one with the experience."
Patrick never mentioned Clinton, but the New York Democrat has made her eight years in the White House during her husband's administration a central argument for her candidacy, particularly in the final days before Thursday's caucuses.
Patrick made a similar remark at a small meeting of undecided voters later in the day, saying he would not have his neighbor's wife operate on him, even though her husband is a surgeon.
But the governor insisted that he was not campaigning against any of the other Democrats. "I'm not speaking ill of any other candidate," he said.
Patrick said Obama is uniquely suited to lead the country at this moment in history.
He said he was pleased about the strength of this year's Democratic field and that he planned to work hard for the party's nominee. But he added that he believed Obama to be the right candidate for the times.
Americans, he said, "want fundamental change, they want a different attitude, they want unity, they want an affirmation of American ideals."
Patrick, who campaigned with Obama at rallies in Iowa all day Saturday, spent most of yesterday in Davenport, where he also spoke at the Third Missionary Baptist Church and then rallied canvassers at one of Obama's field offices in town. He flew back to Pittsfield, near his vacation home in Richmond, yesterday afternoon.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
