New polls on Monday suggested Hillary Clinton’s national support was collapsing, as her aides battled angrily with surging Barack Obama’s camp before a key debate in her last-stand state, Ohio.
Clinton, once the runaway Democratic frontrunner, issued a fierce attack on Obama’s foreign policy credentials and frustration boiled over within her team at what her aides say is the Illinois senator’s easy ride from the media.
Just a week before pivotal nominating clashes in Texas and Ohio, the Obama team accused Clinton of ”shameful” conduct after a picture of him in African dress appeared on the internet. Clinton’s team denied it was guilty of a smear.
In an ominous sign for Clinton, a new CBS News/New York Times survey found Obama with a 16-point lead over the New York senator among Democratic primary voters nationwide, 54% to 38%.
Three weeks ago, before Obama reeled off 11 straight nominating wins, the rivals were level at 41%, and Clinton was 15 points up last month.
In another sign of Obama’s accelerating momentum, a USA Today poll had him up 51% to 39% nationally among Democratic voters. A Gallup tracking poll, however, had Obama only two points up in the race for the right to battle presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
A day before the rivals clash in a debate in Ohio, which along with Texas on March 4 holds must-win nominating contests for Clinton, the former first lady warned Obama was a risky choice as he was inexperienced on the global stage.
Her voice at times reduced to a croak from non-stop campaigning, she said in a speech here she did not need ”a foreign policy instruction manual” to cope with a diplomatic crisis.
She took fresh aim at Obama’s proposal for summit talks with sworn United States foes such as Cuba, Iran and North Korea, but Obama aides accused Clinton of joining a ”neo-conservative drumbeat” for war with Iran.
The sparring came as a photograph emerged of Obama in African dress, at the start of the candidates’ final week of campaigning before primaries in Ohio and Texas on March 4 that are must-win nominating contests for Clinton.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe accused the Clinton camp of ”shameful, offensive fear-mongering” after the picture of Obama dressed in a Somali robe and turban appeared on gossip website Drudge Report.
The picture of Obama, who is bidding to be the first African-American president, was taken during an emotional visit by the candidate to his father’s homeland of Kenya in 2006.
The website said the photo had been circulated by Clinton aides, a claim denied by her campaign, which said the Obama team should be ”ashamed” for suggesting the image could prove divisive in the hard-fought election.
Clinton’s communications chief Howard Wolfson let his frustration show in a tirade against the media.
”I think it is true that every time the Obama campaign in this campaign has attacked Senator Clinton in the worst kind of personal ways, attacked her veracity, attacked her credibility, said that she would say or do anything to get elected, the press has largely applauded him,” Wolfson said.
”I think Senator Obama’s entire campaign against Senator Clinton is negative,” Wolfson said during a conference call.
”He has run against her as the status quo, he has essentially called her divisive, he has called her untruthful, he has questioned her credibility. He has said she will do or say anything to get elected.”
”Now, if that’s not negative, I don’t know what negative is.”
New polls in Ohio and Texas cast doubt on Clinton’s capacity to pull off the emphatic victories she needs to chase down Obama’s lead in nominating delegates.
A CNN/Opinion Research survey found Obama leading in Texas for the first time, with 50% of likely Democratic primary voters backing him, compared to 46% for Clinton.
Given the poll’s 3,5 percentage point margin of error, however, the race was still a statistical tie, in line with other state surveys. — AFP
