by John McCormick
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Sen. Hillary Clinton’s top spokesman suggested this afternoon that Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign had been “measuring the drapes” for the White House, before it was surprised by a second-place finish in New Hampshire.
The comment came during a conference call with reporters where several members of her husband’s administration provided testimony on what they said were policy achievements during the 1990s, seeking to further tweak Obama for statements he made last week about Republicans being the “party of ideas” during the period.
“It was Democrats who did it,” said Steve Richetti, a deputy chief of staff during the Clinton administration. “We’re here to argue that the new ideas and leadership was provided by Democrats.”
Mark Penn, Clinton’s top strategist, said Obama made the comments while trying to win support from a more conservative newspaper editorial board in Reno, Nevada.
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“He never in that transcript says that they were bad ideas,” he said. “He says that the Republican Party was the party of ideas for the past 10 or 15 years.”
Penn called on Obama to provide specifics on the “ideas” he was talking about. “We have yet to see any specific answer,” he said.
Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director, defended a radio ad that her campaign took off South Carolina airwaves that used Obama’s comments about Republicans and suggested he thought those ideas superior to Democratic ones.
“The advertisement uses his own works,” Wolfson said, later adding that the ad was replaced with a new one that offers a closing argument for South Carolina.
Before its second-place showing in New Hampshire, Wolfson said Obama’s campaign was “measuring the drapes” for the White House.
After a loss there and another in Nevada, Wolfson said Obama’s campaign turned its attention to “attacking” Bill Clinton, after doing so “under the radar” for much of the campaign.
“We’re calling them on it,” Wolfson said. “We are not going to let President Clinton come under attack by the Obama campaign.”
Wolfson said Clinton’s campaign is now advertising in nine states that will hold primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5. “We will have all the resources we need to make sure that our message is heard,” he said.