Obama takes his cue from Bill Clinton

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

CONCORD, NH -- Taking Tim Russert's lead, Barack Obama has begun using Bill Clinton's words against his wife.

Taking a folded piece of paper out of his pocket at a Saturday-morning rally at a public park here, Obama read the words of another presidential candidate: "'The same old experience isn't relevant. You can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience.'"

"That candidate was Bill Clinton," he said.

But Obama didn't seem terribly nostalgic for the eight years that followed candidate Clinton's successful redefinition of "experience."

"You need someone who will tell the truth -- not be slick, not triangulate, not maneuver," Obama said later in the speech.