Obama vs Clinton: family wars
New York. With less than two months to go before the Iowa caucuses, candidates spouses are stepping up their efforts to help their loved ones. Last July, Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards’ wife, was the first one strike when she said that her husband would be a better advocate on women’s issues than Hillary Clinton. Since then, spouses have been playing an active role on the campaign trail. With his wife under attack from her male democratic rivals, Bill Clinton has come out swinging to defend her. On November 12, in South Carolina, he played the gender card. “Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it”, the former president said according to the Associated Press. A week earlier, Bill Clinton tried to protect Hillary from another round of attacks by the Obama and Edwards’ camps about the failure of the health care reform in 1994. The former president said in Iowa that he should be blamed more than his wife for that unsuccessful attempt despite that the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, which had been asked by the Clinton White House to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, was headed by the First Lady at the time. “She has taken the rap for some of the problems we had with health care the last time that were far more my fault than hers”, Bill Clinton said according to MSNBC. Bill Clinton Last week he compared the attacks on his wife to the “Swift boat” attacks, John Kerry had been the target during in the 2004 presidential race. The democratic candidate had had to defend himself against a group of conservative veterans, who had accused him of distorting his Vietnam record. The Senator from Massachusetts had failed to react promptly against those attacks and his presidential bid had suffered a great deal even if media outlets including the New York Times had showed at the time that the so-called “Swift boat” attacks were inaccurate. In order to try to catch up with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have so far focused on her 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq. They have accused her of contradicting herself. Michelle Obama, Barack’s wife, has played the race card this week. In an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, she asked African-American voters to “wake up”. Last October, a CNN poll showed Hillary Clinton beating Barack Obama, 57% to 33%, among black registered Democrats nationwide. “That’s not going to hold,” Michelle Obama said. “I’m completely confident black America will wake up and get it.” Obama’s wife also writes emails to her husband’s supporters to urge them to fund his campaign. Elizabeth Edwards, who is battling cancer, has been very active on the campaign trail to support her husband John. In the all-male republican field, the campaign is far more traditional. Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and John McCain have relied far less on their discreet spouses than their democratic opponents. Jean-Cosme Delaloye / New York. A French version of this story was published on November 15 2007 in 24heures and Tribune de Genève in Switzerland. CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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