Clinton pulls negative South Carolina ad

ANDERSON, S.C. – Now that Hillary Clinton is putting in some face time in the state that holds its primary on Saturday, her campaign has swapped a controversial negative radio ad for an upbeat, positive one.

The negative ad quoted Obama as saying, “The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years.”

And then the announcer responded: “Really? Aren’t those the ideas that got us into the economic mess we’re in today? Ideas like special tax breaks for Wall Street. Running up a $9 trillion debt. Refusing to raise the minimum wage or deal with the housing crisis. Are those the ideas Barack Obama’s talking about?”

The Obama campaign cried foul and said the Illinois senator’s words were taken totally out of context. They also put out a negative radio ad of their own here saying Clinton had made false attacks.

Well, today Clinton’s ad went off the air, just as her campaign debuted one with Bill Clinton, who starts out talking about the troubled economy and goes on:

“I also know that African Americans have been hit the hardest these last seven years. Who can fix health care, who can fix our economy, who can create new jobs, who can reduce the price of gas at the pump? Hillary can.”

Another thing: It was impossible not to notice that in her two appearances today, Clinton drew almost entirely white audiences, in a state where half of Democratic voters are African-American. Her husband, long popular with black voters, has drawn much more mixed crowds.