DENVER–UPDATE The Clinton campaign issued a strong statement distancing the candidate from comments New Hampshire Democrat Bill Shaheen a Clinton campaign co-chair made about Barack Obama’s experiments with drugs while a youth. “Senator Clinton is out every day talking about the issues that matter to the American people. These comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way.”
UPDATE
I deeply regret the comments I made today and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way, said Bill Shaheen.
OLD
It’s happened.
In New Hampshire, the Hillary Clinton campaign has raised questions about whether Barack Obama’s admission of youthful drug experimentation will provide fodder for Republicans–and make his less electable.
Raising this electability argument now is being done because New Hampshire and Iowa voters are thought to often make up their minds not so much who they personally like–but who they think may be the strongest Democrat to win the general election.
Obama campaign manger David Plouffe says it is a “desperate effort” coming in the wake of Clinton’s drop in the polls.
This from Plouffe…
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe today released the following statement in response to the Clinton campaigns latest attack.
Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the fun part of this campaign, and now shes moved from Barack Obamas kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls. Senator Clintons campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and hes talked about the lessons hes learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people, said Plouffe.
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