Bill Clinton sounds off on backlash

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Bill Clinton sounds off on backlash
By: Mike Allen
January 12, 2008 08:22 PM EST

Former President Bill Clinton is expressing frustration with the backlash in the black community over his claim in New Hampshire that the press has coddled Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill).

“This is what happens any time anyone tries to question a statement or a position of Senator Obama,” Clinton says in an interview now airing on Sirius satellite radio. “The response is, ‘You’re attacking me personally,’ and that relieves him of the obligation to address the substance.”

Obama has not said he took the remarks personally, but they rankled some of his supporters.

As part of a damage-control effort, Clinton spoke to Mark Thompson, a well-known African-American community leader who is host of the “Make It Plain” program on Talk Left, Sirius’ liberal talk channel. Sirius has put the whole interview online.

The former president was attempting to tamp down criticism for an assertion he made toward the end of a town hall meeting at Dartmouth College, the day before the New Hampshire primary. He heatedly told the crowd that Obama was wrong to claim “no difference in your voting record and Hillary's” on Iraq. ........

Durbin warns Bill Clinton
By: Mike Allen
January 12, 2008 10:03 PM EST

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking party leader in the Senate, says President Bill Clinton’s comments about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are getting “too personal” and called on the former president to refrain from attacking Obama’s integrity.

“I’m really troubled by his questioning the sincerity of Barack Obama’s opposition to the war in Iraq,” Durbin said. “I really think it is unfortunate to question Barack’s sincerity on the war. He has been there from the start, opposing this war.”

The unsolicited comments — in a phone call to Politico from Springfield, Ill. — were a sign that the Obama campaign is going to react aggressively to perceived attacks on the senator’s character.

“I really had hoped ... that it wouldn’t become too personal or too negative,” Durbin said. “I don’t think that’s good for either of the candidates or for our party. There may be clear some clear differences on some issues.”

Durbin suggested that the former president has been giving somewhat revisionist accounts on the way the Iraq war debate played out.

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