Posted on 03/02/2008 5:52:01 PM PST by DBCJR
WESTERVILLE, Ohio - Democrat Barack Obama worked to fend off an intensified attack on his foreign policy credentials from rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday as their paths crossed two days ahead of a potentially race-ending showdown in Ohio and Texas.
"What precise foreign-policy experience is she claiming that makes her qualified to answer that telephone call at 3 a.m. in the morning?" Obama asked of the former first lady at a town-hall meeting. It was a reference to dueling television ads over who would exercise superior judgment in responding to a national emergency in the middle of the night.
The Illinois senator also sought to ease lingering Internet-fed concerns about his religion, in particular whether he was a closet Muslim.
"I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years. I pray to Jesus every night," he declared at an earlier appearance in the rural southern Ohio town of Nelsonville. He said he wanted to halt "confusion that has been deliberately perpetrated."
Unlike Clinton, who has been barnstorming Ohio, Obama had only two events in the state on Sunday and was spending the night in hometown Chicago. He heads to Texas on Monday for a final day of campaigning before awaiting returns on Tuesday in San Antonio.
His aides said privately that they felt they had a good shot at a win in Texas, but were less certain about Ohio, where they braced for a possible loss.
The two senators came close to running into each other in this Columbus suburb, where Clinton spoke at one high school and Obama spoke several hours later at another. Obama supporters boasted of a much larger crowd.
Obama said his opposition to the war in 2002 was not a single speech — as Clinton has asserted — but a series of remarks during his 2002 successful Senate campaign.
Obama criticized Clinton expressly for failing to read the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons capabilities, a report available at the time of her October 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war. "She didn't give diplomacy a chance. And to this day, she won't even admit that her vote was a mistake — or even that it was a vote for war," Obama said.
"When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation the decision to invade Iraq Senator Clinton got it wrong," Obama said.
He said that Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow Democrat from neighboring West Virginia, had read the intelligence estimate as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. However, Rockefeller wound up voting for the war resolution.
Rockefeller, who is now chairman of that committee, endorsed Obama on Friday and campaigned with him on Saturday.
Rockefeller called Obama "brilliant" and "well grounded" and prepared to take the reins as commander in chief.
The Obama campaign also lined up a conference call for reporters with various Democratic foreign-policy experts who asserted his ability to inspire and lead, his good judgment on Iraq, and ticked legislative accomplishments. It was an effort to undercut Clinton's claim that Obama foreign-policy experience was shallow.
In addition to foreign policy, Obama talked about economic issues affecting economically depressed Ohio, as had Clinton.
Recent polls show Clinton retains a lead in Ohio, although it has been narrowing. In Texas, her once formidable lead has all but vanished and the race is now seen as a dead heat.
Most Democratic strategists see Texas and Ohio as must-win states if Clinton is to continue her candidacy, a view also expressed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
She has lost 11 consecutive contests to Obama and lags in the delete count.
But in recent days, Clinton campaign officials have suggested that if Obama doesn't win all four Tuesday contests — which also include races in Rhode Island and Vermont — it would signal "buyers remorse" and be reason to continue the campaign to the next major primary, Pennsylvania on April 22.
Hillary is making McCain's case while letting Obama's blood. Excellent for Repubs in the General - unless Limbaugh's mutiny takes it's toll. Last week Limbaugh said that he is not so much a Republican as a conservative; not so much a conservative as a "classic" liberal, stressing the freedom aspect of that term. Actually, I think Rush meant "libertine" or "libertarian". This ties in with my earlier post on an article claiming that Reganism is passe', to which I replied, "We haven't seen Reganism since Regan."
‘I was a little Jakarta street kid,’’ he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his
elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.
Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘’one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’’
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/03/06/obama_man_of_the_world.php
That is November gold.
Case in point (read carefully):
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/03/06/obama_man_of_the_world.php
Go copy it to your hard drive, it’ll be gone soon.
Yeah, and when lightning strikes Obama it is going to add to the political concerns with global warming...
I said that I am a devout Christian on occasion ...I don’t care about his religion. I can’t stand Hillary. I think McCain will lose no matter what so I want Hillary out of the race. I can’t even bear to think what it would be like to have those two back in the White House.
They say it's myopic to criticize obama.
the gods have spoken.
I'm beginning to really dislike this bozo.
conservatives on the other hand believe that libertine behavior inevitably results in more government for everyone else. That is why social liberals tend to be fiscal liberals as well.
I think that he said, "sparkley" and "well-groomed."
I want hillary out but i want it to be as hard for obama as possible.
LOL, i picked up on the same typo, but cant think of a sufficiently witty retort.
GRRR. He shouldn't have gone home to Chicago but barnstormed as vigorously as she has. "A good shot in Texas", where's it's too close to call, is not the mindset of someone who claimed March 4th will end this thing. Bracing himself for a loss in Ohio is contrary to his boasting that she's done and should leave the race. No stone should be left unturned with the Clintons.
Barack Fitzgerald Obama ‘08!
Get used to O’Bambino, he’ll be around a while. And for now take him at his word. Be glad the Krintong Kriminal Syndicate is being defeated. For some radio loudmouth (who is apparently worshipped here) to suggest voting for the Syndicate on Tuesday is beyond the pale.
You're very confused, if you think "libertine" and "libertarian" are in any way related. Please look up the terms you just mis-used before attempting to use them again.
> This ties in with my earlier post on an article claiming that Reganism is passe', to which I replied, "We haven't seen Reganism since Regan."
You're also having trouble with your spell-checker.
If you mean our 40th President, it's spelled Reagan.
His father was muslim, his step father was muslim and his mother an atheist. You can bet the farm that he was raised Muslim. He says he’s a “devout Christian” only for political reasons. I thought liberals hated Christianity anyway. Look at the way they have critisized Bush because he is a Christian. Husseins views on abortion are about as far from Christian as you can get. He’s just a liar.
Does Tom Raum from the AP wear his cheer-leading outfit to the Obama rallies ? The AP has evolved into a Soros funded Obama 527.
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