Obama attempts to draw contrast on lobbyists

Two weeks into his spirited engagement with Hillary Clinton over foreign policy, Barack Obama today seized on a new perceived opening to sharpen their differences over lobbyists.

Campaigning in Iowa today, Obama went after agribusiness lobbyists who he said have carried too much influence over US agriculture policy and funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to big business instead of small farmers. He promised to work to change that in the farm bill that's now before Congress.

"When the farm bill comes up in the Senate, I will be fighting to tell all those agribusiness lobbyists that they won't be able to count on the multi-million-dollar subsidies they always get because we're going to put family farmers first," Obama said at campaign events in Le Mars and Sioux City, according to his campaign. "While you're working in the fields, lobbyists are working in Congress to block the rural reforms America needs."

Sure, Obama has been railing against lobbyists for some time and celebrating the fact that he doesn't accept their campaign contributions. But it seems clear that his Iowa remarks were designed in part to distinguish himself from Clinton, who told liberal bloggers in Chicago over the weekend that lobbyists were upstanding folks who did the people's business. "A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans, they actually do," Clinton said. "They represent nurses, they represent social workers, and, yes, they represent corporations that employ a lot of people."

Obama's populist message may play in the Democratic primary, but Clinton's campaign argues in a new memo today that she's the most electable in a general election. Clinton is polling higher against not just Democrats, but also against the likely GOP nominees, senior adviser Mark Penn says in the memo.

"She is the candidate of experience and change, a combination no other candidate can match," Penn wrote. "As a result we will likely see more attacks from her Democratic opponents, despite their claims to be practicing a new kind of politics or eschewing intra-party attacks."

Hmm, now who could Penn possibly be talking about?

UPDATE: In today's edition of Warring Memos, Obama's campaign just sent out its own, questioning Clinton's reliance on national polls and claiming progress at the state level. "As the Washington insiders focus on irrelevant and wildly inconsistent national polls, there are strong signs in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina of the growing power and potential of this candidacy," campaign manager David Plouffe wrote to supporters.

If you're dizzy from all this spin, you're not alone.