Clinton, Obama spat turns nasty on eve of caucuses
RENO, Nevada (AFP) — Hillary Clinton took Barack Obama to task Friday as new tensions flared between the Democratic foes hours before their next nominating clash, in the gambling haven western state of Nevada.
Republicans meanwhile geared up for their next voting showdown, in South Carolina, also Saturday, vying for wavering voters who could decide a tight first-place struggle between Senator John McCain and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Clinton, hoping to use the Nevada caucuses to repeat her win in the New Hampshire primary last week that avenged Obama's victory in Iowa on January 3, singled out an interview in which her rival cited the catalytic role of ex-president Ronald Reagan.
"My leading opponent said the other day that he felt the Republicans had better ideas than Democrats over the last 10 or 15 years. And that's not the way I remember the last 10 or 15 years," Clinton said.
Later, she added: "they've been the party of bad ideas."
Obama's remarks to the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper editorial board were circulating widely as a YouTube video, and while a plausible view of history, it could anger grass roots Democrats who despise Reagan's legacy.
"I think it's fair to say the Republicans were the party of ideas over a pretty long chunk of time there, over the last 10-15 years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom," Obama said.
But his campaign accused the Clinton camp of distorting, parsing and selectively quoting Obama's remarks, just days after the foes smoothed over a row about race sparked by her comments on civil rights icon Martin Luther King.
"It's hard to take Hillary Clinton?s latest attack seriously when she?s the one who supported George Bush?s war in Iraq, the most damaging Republican idea of our generation," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.
"While others were triangulating and poll-testing their positions, Senator Obama has been fighting for progressive ideals for over two decades."
In the same interview, the Illinois senator, vowing to unleash a wave of reform, said Reagan had "changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not."
The Clinton camp pounced on the remarks with campaign supporter, Congressman Barney Frank, saying he was "stupefied" by the comments.
"This notion that style in the presidency trumps substance, is a terrible error. Ronald Reagan was a dedicated right-winger in every aspect," Frank said in a Clinton campaign conference call.
Both top Democrats earlier rejected President George W. Bush's proposal for a 140 billion dollar plan to ward off recession, as she campaigned in the vast, arid western state, among the areas worst hit by the US mortgage crisis.
"The Bush approach would fail to fully help the millions of lower income senior citizens who live on fixed incomes and are under enormous financial stress," Clinton said in a statement.
"It would disproportionately leave out African-American and Hispanic families who have, on average, lower incomes than white families," she said, mentioning two powerbases of the Democratic coalition.
The former first lady is touting a 70 billion dollar economic jumpstart plan which includes an emergency component to head off home foreclosures, and a separate 40 billion dollar proposal for tax rebates for working families.
Obama touted his own 75 billion dollar plan with events, like Clinton, in gamblers' paradise Las Vegas, the western city of Reno and the northern outpost of Elko.
"George Bush finally offered a plan that would leave out tens of millions of working Americans and seniors who need help most and are most likely to spend and boost our economy," Obama said in a statement.
A new poll Friday by the Las Vegas Review Journal had Clinton nine points up on Obama in Nevada, 41 to 32 percent, ahead of the notoriously tough-to-poll caucuses.
Obama however has the support of the top culinary workers union, an edge which could be crucial in an increasingly nasty election.
Both the Nevada and South Carolina contests are the latest key twist in the delicately poised presidential races, with no clear front-runner on either side, running into the February 5 "Super Tuesday" flurry of more than 20 nominating elections.
The latest South Carolina poll by MSNBC had Republican McCain leading Huckabee 27 to 25 percent with Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's Michigan primary, on 15 percent.
