Barack Obama
Newly Engaged in a Three-Front WarBy Alec MacGillis
TOLEDO --
So this is what being a front-runner deep in primary season looks like: taking flak on three sides.Sen. Barack
Obama found himself today facing insinuations from Republicans that he lacks patriotism, charges from Hillary Clinton that he is a hypocrite on campaign ethics, and put-downs from Ralph Nader, who in announcing his third-party candidacy this morning dismissed Obama as well-intentioned but in hock to the corporate agenda.
So far, at least, Obama is showing that he can stand his ground and return fire on all fronts. -snip-
"The way I will respond to it is with the truth. I owe everything I am to this country. The reason I came to national attention was a speech in which I spoke of my love for this country," he said. "The notion that I am disqualified because at one event I was singing the national anthem but failed to put my hand over my heart -- if that were the case, that must disqualify half the people who've ever gone to a football game."
His wife, he said, had clarified her comments to make clear that what she meant was that this was the first time she was "proud of politics in America, and that's true of a lot of people." As for the pin, he said, "if we want to start getting into those definitions of patriotism," then he would come back with questions for a "a party that presided over a war where the troops that didn't get the body armor they needed" and is "undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary."
"That's a debate I'm more than willing to have," he said. "We'll see what the Americans think is the true definition of patriotism."-snip-
Obama's answer was even tougher than one he gave Saturday about Nader.
"Ralph Nader's view is, unless it's Ralph Nader, then you're not tough enough on any of these issues," he said. "He thought there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush. I think eight years later, people realize Ralph doesn't know what he's talking about."-snip-
"She's essentially presented herself as co-president during the Clinton years. Every good thing that happened she says she was a part of," he said. "So the notion that she can selectively pick what you take credit for and then run away from what isn't politically convenient, that doesn't make sense. If she's suggesting she had nothing to do with economic policy in the Clinton White House, then it would not be fair , but as you know, that's not the claim that she's making."http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/24/newly_engaged_in_a_threefront.html?hpid=topnews
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