Clinton and Obama debate who is the tougher candidate
Democrats testy ahead of Tuesday showdown in Pa.
RADNOR, Pa. - In a campaign where the Iraq war, the mortgage crisis, and the economy have been tops in the minds of voters, the two Democratic contenders yesterday sparred over a less weighty question: Who is the bigger whiner?
Hillary Clinton thinks it is Barack Obama, who criticized the barrage of harsh questions and Clinton commentary he endured at the debate Wednesday night in Philadelphia. Obama thinks it is Clinton, who has frequently objected to what she describes as tougher treatment of her by the press.
And with just days to go before Tuesday's critical primary in economically distressed Pennsylvania, the two Ivy League educated lawyers are delivering the same message to Keystone State voters: I'm being treated unfairly, but I'm tougher than my opponent, who can't take a little criticism.
Clinton made her pitch yesterday in a high school gymnasium, winning cheers from a mostly teenage audience as she castigated the Illinois senator as the class wimp.
"Did you see the debate the other night?" Clinton asked at Radnor High School. "I know that some of my opponent's supporters, and my opponent, are kind of complaining about the hard questions," she said.
"Having been in the White House for eight years, and seen what happens in terms of the pressures and stresses on a president, that was nothing," the New York senator added. "I'm with Harry Truman on this: If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Speaking for myself, I'm very comfortable in the kitchen."
Obama's campaign shot back quickly, saying it was blatant hypocrisy for Clinton to call Obama less than tough when she has frequently cast herself as the victim of heavier scrutiny. During a debate last month in Cleveland, Clinton pointed out that she was fielding the first question again and referred to a "Saturday Night Live" skit that suggested reporters were in the tank for Obama.
"You tell me who's been complaining about the press for the last six months," Obama told reporters yesterday. "You tell me."
The rhetoric reflects the testiness in both campaigns as the candidates battle for votes ahead of Tuesday's primary. While some Democrats, mostly Obama's supporters, have suggested that Clinton pull out of the race, Clinton has determinedly stayed in, hoping to convince superdelegates that she would be the stronger nominee. Obama has been steadily increasing his superdelegate count, while the Clinton campaign yesterday trumpeted a national poll showing she had narrowed Obama's lead from 7 percentage points to 3 following Wednesday's debate.
For months Clinton and her supporters have blamed media coverage for her inability to sew up the Democratic nomination, as many of them expected her to do easily and early. The campaign has complained about sexism and accused the press of not scrutinizing Obama. After media outlets discovered a memo indicating that an adviser told Canadian officials that Obama was not as opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement as his speeches suggested, Clinton told reporters that the coverage would have been different had it been her and not Obama involved in the controversy.
"People just blank-check him," said Susan Greenstein, 62, a retired teacher from suburban Pennsylvania supporting Clinton. "They think he can walk on water."
Ellen Malcolm, head of the feminist fund-raising group EMILY's List, shook her head in disbelief at what she called the sexism in media coverage of Clinton.
"When you're the first, you get all the gender stereotypes," Malcolm said.
But this week, it was Obama who was on the defensive, as debate moderators pummeled him with questions about remarks made by his former minister and his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, former head of a radical 1960s group. Obama, bruised by the debate, compared Clinton's attacks to the tactics of Republicans who have targeted Clinton over the years.
Yesterday, Obama saved his shots for Senator John McCain of Arizona, saying the presumptive GOP nominee did not understand the depth of economic distress in areas such as Erie, where he was campaigning. McCain said in a TV interview Thursday that the country had made great progress economically under President Bush.
"Only somebody who's spent two decades in Washington could make a statement as disconnected from the hard times people are facing," Obama said.
McCain's campaign accused Obama of cherry-picking comments, pointing out that McCain, in the same interview, acknowledged that families are now facing tremendous economic challenges.
