Clinton Memo on Bill Clinton Being Compared to Joe McCarthy

To: Interested PartiesFrom: Howard Wolfson, Communications Director

Date: March 22, 2008

RE: Bill Clinton = Joe McCarthy?!

Recent attacks by Obama Campaign surrogate General Merrill McPeak comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy are outraegous and divisive, but not surprising. They are in keeping with the Obama campaign's daily attacks on Senator Clinton's character in starkly personal terms.

Suggestions by the Obama campaign that Bill Clinton was questioning Barack Obama's patriotism are equally irresponsible and incorrect. In discussing a possible Clinton-McCain race, the former President said: "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

We can not imagine that the Obama Campaign really believes that the comments above were an attack on Senator Obama in any way; rather their attempt to cast the comments in that light are nothing more than a transparent attempt to shift the media's focus away from his recent troubles (http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6668).

Of course, this is not the first time in this campaign that General McPeak has engaged in personal attacks. On February 2, General McPeak was forced to apologize for remarks he made about Senator Clinton ( http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-iraqpol2feb02,0,1272905.story).

Many Americans were taken with Senator Obama's call this past week to engage in a high minded debate. Now, just days later, his campaign is comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy.