Clinton co-chair apologizes for Obama drug-use smear 
A top aide to Hillary Clinton said he "regrets" raising Sen. Barack Obama's past drug use, and he insists the Clinton campaign had nothing to do with the apparent smear.
"I deeply regret the comments I made today, and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way," Bill Shaheen said in a statement released by the Clinton campaign.
The 180-degree reversal from the co-chair of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire came less than 24 hours after the Washington Post printed Shaheen's initial speculation that Obama's past could haunt him in a general election campaign. Obama acknowledged years ago in his memoir that he had used cocaine and marijuana during his youth.
The former First Lady finds herself in a tightening race with the freshman Illinois senator, less than a month from the New Hampshire primary. Polls that had given her a substantial lead months ago now show the two are locked in a statistical tie.
Shaheen told the Post that Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions from Republicans during a general election campaign. Obama acknowledged using smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and occasionally snorting cocaine in his memoir "Dreams from My Father."
"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" Shaheen said. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome."
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told the Associated Press in response to Shaheen's remarks:
"Hillary Clinton said attacking other Democrats is the fun part of this campaign, and now she's moved from Barack Obama's kindergarten years to his teenage years in an increasingly desperate effort to slow her slide in the polls. Senator Clinton's campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he's talked about the lessons he's learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people."
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