| | Obama campaign says it won't dig for dirt in Clintons' White House years
Although Barack Obama's campaign has taken on a more negative tone in the last week, it does not plan to dig through Hillary Clinton's White House closets for more skeletons, a top adviser said Wednesday.
Campaign manager David Plouffe was asked about a Washington Post report Monday that outlined Team Obama's strategy to continue building contrasts between the Illinois senator and former first lady. At one point a source suggested to the Post that some old dirt on the Clintons would be reappearing as the candidates fight towards primaries in Indiana and North Carolina in two weeks.
With Obama clearly favored in North Carolina, even he has called Indiana the "tiebreaker," a state that adjoins Illinois but where Clinton voters hold sway in the working-class towns in the south. In the two weeks leading up to the Indiana primary, a Democratic strategist familiar with the Obama campaign said aides are likely to turn to the controversies of Bill Clinton's White House years -- Hillary Clinton's trading cattle futures, Whitewater and possibly impeachment.
"Everyone knows the history of the Clintons," the strategist said.
Plouffe would not say the campaign planned to address that period, but seemed open to the possibility in the future: "The Republicans certainly are going to look at those issues, the Clinton finances, the record issues. We have chosen not to go there."
During Wednesday's call, Plouffe accused whoever was speaking to the Post of engaging in "an act of puffery" and not knowing about the campaign's plans.
"We're not going to do that," he said, regarding the invocation of 90s-era controversies.
Obama's campaign has maintained a hands-off approach regarding Clinton's past, and she has argued that her baggage already has been throughly picked through, leaving nothing more to find.
During Wednesday's call, Plouffe took few shots at Clinton, instead focusing on arguing that Obama remains a stronger challenge to John McCain because he can compete in more states and draws in more young and independent voters. He apparently couldn't resist one dig when a reporter asked about Clinton's reported $2.5 million fundraising haul after Pennsylvania's polls closed Tuesday. The Clinton campaign is deeply in debt and reportedly hasn't paid some of its bills, but campaign manager Terry McAuliffe said later Wednesday that Clinton raised $10 million since Tuesday.
"I guess they can now pay off some of their vendors," he said. "Which I'm sure the vendors will be pleased about."
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