The Clinton campaign held one of it’s regular conference calls with Neera Tanden, senior policy advisor for Hillary Clinton, Howard Wolfson Communications Director and Phil Singer Deputy Communications Director.
Tanden started off summarizing Clinton’s economic speech and her commitment to creating new jobs in the energy sector. A big emphasis of this was education and job training for workers to change into new, growing sectors of the economy and access to Pell grants for people who are working and studying.
When questioned about when the Clinton’s tax returns would be made available Wolfson said that he had full confidence that the media would have everything they need to evaluate the Clintons within a week. When pressed about the delay, Wolfson said that Obama had delayed too when asked to produce tax returns.
When asked about Clinton’s previous statement comparing the credentials for commander in chief to John McCain (i.e. Clinton saying I have experience in the senate and foreign policy, John McCain has experience in the senate and foreign policy, Obama has a speech he gave in 2002) the Clinton campaign reps said that there John McCain has credentials for foreign policy but he is wrong on the biggest foreign policy question of the day and that is the war in Iraq.
When asked about whether Hillary’s comparisons to her credentials and John McCain’s were a factor in recent Gallup polls that suggest that 28 percent of Clinton supporters would vote for McCain were the race to be between McCain and Obama. Wolfson answered that no, her comments have nothing to do with those numbers, which they discount because they are so close to the margin of error, and that the party will united around the Democratic nominee in the end.
The issue of the letter sent by Clinton donors to Nancy Pelosi came up. The letter told Pelosi to clarify her comments about superdelegates and emphasized the Clinton campaign’s line that superdelegates should vote for whomever is best for the party and the country. The campaign reps on the call said that they did not help in drafting the letter and only received a heads up about it being send to the Speaker of the House.
The biggest criticisms of Obama from this conference call were:
-That Obama is not a creative thinker and he is a follower. He simply piggy backed on Clinton’s $30 billion second stimulus idea.
- Obama believes that voter participation in the Democratic process is not in his best interest and he is the one standing in the way of the voices of Michigan and Florida voters being heard. Obama is the obstacle, not the legislatures or Democratic parties of these states.
- Obama, because he can not distinguish himself on policy matters, is resorting to pointed, intentional personal attacks on Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton. The media is turning a blind eye to the hypocrisy of Obama’s positive message about hope and unity.
