Obama Campaign Character Attacks Not Supported By Facts

elixir

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Fri Mar-21-08 10:20 PM
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Obama Campaign Character Attacks Not Supported By Facts

Obama Campaign Character Attacks Not Supported By Facts
3/21/2008 11:57:27 AM

At the outset of the campaign, Sen. Obama pledged that his campaign would not attempt to "tear people down personally." This morning the Obama campaign released a strikingly negative memo attacking Hillary's character and asserting that Hillary "has consistently made political calculations to deliberately mislead the American people."

The memo is also dishonest. Below is a detailed look at the Obama campaign's claims that sets the record straight.

60 Minutes Interview
The Obama campaign falsely claimed that Hillary would not confirm that Obama was a Christian in a 60 minutes interview:

Obama�s religion. In a �60 Minutes� interview, Senator Clinton refused to confirm that Senator Obama is a Christian, even though she knows the facts.
Here is how Media Matters' Eric Boehlert described the interview:

The fact is, if you look at Clinton's exchange with Kroft in its entirety, which lasted less than one minute, I count eight separate times in which she either plainly denied the false claim that Obama was Muslim, labeled that suggestion to be a smear, or expressed sympathy for Obama having to deal with the Muslim innuendo.

Family and Medical Leave Act
The Obama campaign falsely claimed that Hillary had nothing to do with passing the Family and Medical Leave Act:

Her role in passing the Family and Medical Leave Act. Clinton credits herself with �helping to pass� the Family and Medical Leave Act as First Lady. But the 11,000 pages of schedules don�t contain a single mention of her involvement in the issue.
Here is what Debra Ness, President of the National Partnership for Women and Families, said about Hillary's involvement in FMLA:

Hillary was instrumental in getting the Family and Medical Leave Act signed into law. We at the National Partnership for Women & Families as well as other family and labor groups had been pushing for the law for nearly 10 years. Hillary brought her work and experience on behalf of children and working families to the campaign trail in 1991 and 1992 and knew the importance of getting this legislation passed immediately. Two weeks after President Clinton was inaugurated, it was done.

Experience
The Obama campaign says every year she worked at a private law firm, she was not engaged in public service:

35 Years in Public Service. The oft-repeated Clinton claim that she has 35 years of public service experience is simply false. Fifteen of those years were spent at a law practice.
During that time, Hillary was First Lady of Arkansas, Founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, was appointed by President Carter to the board of the U.S. Legal Services Corporation, Chaired Rural Health Advisory Committee in Arkansas and was on the board of directors of the Children's Defense Fund, among other activities in the public service.

Sen. Obama also worked in private practice for about a decade, and doesn't exclude that period of time from his experience in public service.

The Obama campaign also denigrates her experience as first lady, where she represented the United States in more than 80 countries. More on Hillary's foreign policy experience HERE.

Florida and Michigan
The Obama campaign is misleading voters about Hillary's position on Florida and Michigan:

The Michigan and Florida primaries. Back when it suited her political purposes she said the Michigan primary �didn�t count for anything� and that she wasn�t leaving her name on the ballot to try to legitimize the results. But now that she desperately needs more votes, she�s doing just that. And despite her pledge not campaign in either state, she held two campaign events in Florida.
In the interview that the Obama campaign cites, Hillary made it clear that Michigan was essential for the Democrats chances in the fall and that's why she left her name on the ballot:

I did not believe it was fair to just say goodbye Michigan and not take into account the fact that we're going to have to win Michigan if we're going to be in the White House in January 2009.
More info HERE. Hillary actually abided by the rules not to campaign before the primary concluded, unlike Sen. Obama who ran advertising in Florida.

NAFTA
The Obama campaign falsely claims that Hillary was not critical of NAFTA in the early 1990s:

Her position on NAFTA. Clinton tells Ohio voters that she has �been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning.� Yet her own schedules show that as First Lady she attended at least four meetings to advocate for its original passage.
Here is what David Gergen, who organized at least one of the meetings, had to say about Hillary's views at the time:

I was actually there in the Clinton White House during the NAFTA fight and I must tell you Hillary Clinton was extremely unenthusiastic about NAFTA. And I think that�s putting it mildly. I�m not sure she objected to all the provisions of it but she just didn�t see why her husband and that White House had to go and do that fight. She was very unhappy about it and wanted to move on to health care. So I do think there�s some justification for her camp saying, you know, she�s never been a great backer for NAFTA.

Disclosure
On a week when 11,000 pages of Hillary's White House schedule were made available to the public, the Obama campaign is continuing to attack Hillary's transparency. At the same time, the Obama campaign has not released a single page of his state senate schedule or records.

There are 20 years of Hillary's tax returns in the public record and she will release all of her post-White House returns next month. Sen. Obama has released one year of his tax returns to the public and refuses to release any other years.

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6664