Hillary Clinton branded rhetoric by Barack Obama’s former pastor ”outrageous” on Wednesday as her Democratic foe tried to recover from his latest campaign crisis with two vital primaries looming.
Clinton made her most expansive comments yet on the latest uproar sparked by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, as she and Obama geared up for crucial White House nominating contests in North Carolina and Indiana on Tuesday.
”Well, I take offence,” Clinton said when asked about Wright’s comments in an interview with Fox News.
”I think it’s offensive and outrageous. I’m going to express my opinion, others can express theirs.”
Wright once claimed Aids was a racist government plot and suggested after the September 11 attacks in 2001 that black citizens sing ”God Damn America” to protest their treatment by whites.
In the interview, Clinton gently tweaked Obama by saying he had ”finally” done what he had to do by casting Wright loose in a press conference on Tuesday.
Though Obama leads in nominating contests, elected delegates and all-important fundraising, Clinton appears to be closing on him in Indiana and North Carolina after her campaign-saving win in Pennsylvania last week.
As two new polls showed Obama’s ratings slipping among Democratic voters, Clinton argued the contest was still wide open.
”This race isn’t decided yet, no matter what the Obama campaign would like you to think,” she said in a fundraising message to supporters.
The New York senator needs to capitalise on Obama’s recent struggles, as she tries to convince ”superdelegates” — Democratic political leaders who effectively hold the nomination in their hands — that Obama is unelectable.
The Illinois senator has tried to move away from the Wright row and focus instead on economic issues, attacking Clinton’s plan for a tax holiday on gasoline in response to high gas prices.
Clinton drove to a gas station on Wednesday with a sheet metal worker from South Bend, Indiana, to highlight her plan, which Obama has labelled a Washington ”gimmick”.
”That’s typical of how Washington works. There’s a problem, everybody’s upset about gas prices — let’s find some short-term, quick-fix, that we can say we did something, even though we’re not really doing anything,” he said in a new campaign ad.
With many Democrats fearing the divisive race between Obama and Clinton could harm their chances of beating Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in November, Clinton also called for unity.
She said it would be the ”height of political foolishness” for Democrats angered that their favourite did not win the nomination to back McCain.
Media commentators, meanwhile, assessed how deeply Wright’s latest fiery comments had damaged the Obama campaign after the Illinois Senator sharply rejected his friend of 20 years on Tuesday.
A new CBS News/New York Times poll taken between Friday and Tuesday found Obama leading Clinton 46% to 38% among Democratic primary voters nationwide, but also registered an increase in his unfavourable ratings.
Neither Clinton nor Obama can now reach the 2 025 pledged delegates threshold to claim the Democratic nomination outright in nine remaining nominating contests.
So the fate of the party’s presidential pick to take on McCain lies in the hands of the nearly 800 superdelegates who can vote how they like at the party’s convention in Denver, Colorado, in August. — AFP
