Obama Camp's Response to Bill Clinton's Health Care Comments

Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe: “Now that Senator Clinton's campaign is floundering, the old Bill Clinton has returned with yet another false accusation about Barack Obama of the kind that failed his wife's campaign in South Carolina. Senator Ted Kennedy, who has made health care a cause of his career, said that he wouldn't have endorsed Barack Obama unless he was ‘absolutely convinced' he would deliver universal health care as President, which is also a reason why millions of SEIU workers dedicated to the cause of universal health care endorsed Barack Obama's candidacy today.”

President Clinton said the following at an event in Texarkana today: "Her opponent excites more Americans ... but would in fact deny us universal health-care coverage for the first time," the former president said. "She represents the solution business." http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021508dnpolclinton.c39e4e82.html <http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021508dnpolclinton.c39e4e82.html>

Kennedy: “I Wouldn't Support Barack Obama Unless I Was Absolutely Convinced That He Was For Universal Comprehensive Health Care.” Ted Kennedy said, “It's the passion of my life, universal comprehensive health care, and I wouldn't support Barack Obama unless I was absolutely convinced that he was for universal comprehensive health care, as well…I've tried for 38 years to get the universal comprehensive health care. I've supported 12 different proposals to try to get there. Elect Barack Obama and we will get there. That's the way I feel.” [Today Show, 1/29/08]

BILL CLINTON REPEATEDLY MAKES FALSE, NEGATIVE ATTACKS
NYT: We Urge Clinton To Change The Tone Of The Campaign; Bill Clinton's Overheated Comments Are Feeding Resentment Of Her Candidacy And Could Do Long-Term Damage To Her Candidacy If He Continues This Way. “As strongly as we back her candidacy, we urge Mrs. Clinton to take the lead in changing the tone of the campaign. It is not good for the country, the Democratic Party or for Mrs. Clinton, who is often tagged as divisive, in part because of bitter feeling about her husband's administration and the so-called permanent campaign. (Indeed, Bill Clinton's overheated comments are feeding those resentments, and could do long-term damage to her candidacy if he continues this way.)” [Editorial, NYT, 1/25/08 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/opinion/25fri1.html?pagewanted=print> ]
Joe Klein: Bill Clinton Inserted Himself Into The Campaign And Attacked Obama On An Almost Daily Basis, Sometimes Falsely. Let me get this straight: Obama wins Iowa. In a desperate move--unprecedented for an ex-President in American politics--Bill Clinton decides to impede Obama's momentum by inserting himself into the campaign. He attacks Obama on an almost daily basis, sometimes falsely. He makes a spectacle of himself. And then he blames the press for not covering the substance of the campaign? [Joe Klein, Time Magazine, 1/24/08 <http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/01/are_you_kidding_me.html> ]

E.J. Dionne: The Clinton Assault On Obama Is Depressing; Doesn't Calling In Bill Clinton As The Lead Attacker Merely Underscore Obama's Central Theme That It's Time To “Turn The Page.” That's why the Clintons' assault on Obama is so depressing. In many ways, Obama is running the 2008 version of the 1992 Clinton campaign. You have the feeling that if Bill Clinton did not have another candidate in this contest, he'd be advising Obama and cheering him on. Does anyone doubt that if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, she will need the votes of the young people and African Americans who have rallied to Obama -- and that what she's doing now will make it harder to energize them? Doesn't calling in Bill Clinton as the lead attacker merely underscore Obama's central theme, that it's time to "turn the page" on our Bush-Clinton-Bush political past? The worst thing about all this is what both Clintons are doing to their own legacy as pioneers of an approach that rejected, as Bill Clinton said in a 1991 speech, "the stale orthodoxies of left and right." The great asset shared by the Clintons is their willingness to bring fresh thinking to old problems. [E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 1/25/08 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402801_pf.html> ]