Obama: Foes using ‘old tricks’

SUMTER, S.C. — Sen. Barack Obama mocked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday as someone who shifts positions based on the political wind, while former President Bill Clinton blamed the press for fanning the flames of the latest Democratic fight.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, evoked Mrs. Clinton’s voting record and past debates as he worked to portray himself as a straight talker.

Mr. Clinton, also campaigning in South Carolina while his wife holds events in other states, told a reporter, “Shame on you” for keeping a story about the Clinton-Obama feud alive. It was the second time in as many weeks that he directed frustration toward reporters.

The Obama stump speech differed only slightly from what he has given in states across the country, but some of his comments were pregnant with suggestion that when he talked about “folks” who aren’t being straight, he meant Mrs. Clinton.

He said folks in Washington will “try to pretend you said something you didn’t say, try to pretend you didn’t say something you did.”

“We know that game, but that’s the kind of politics that we’ve got to change,” he said. “We’ve got to have straight-talking folks who will tell you the truth and be honest with you.”

He cited Mrs. Clinton’s answer that she voted for a bankruptcy bill she had hoped wouldn’t pass, her mailer accusing him of proposing a trillion dollar tax increase for Social Security and her insistence that he has been praising President Reagan.

“Don’t get confused when you start hearing a whole bunch of this negative stuff. Those are the same old tricks,” he said. “They’re trying to bamboozle you. It’s the same old okey doke.”

Also yesterday, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina criticized Mrs. Clinton for campaigning elsewhere in advance of Saturday’s primary here.

“Right after the debate, she flew out and she’s been gone and she won’t be back until I don’t know — later in the week or until primary day,” he said, according to ABC News. “If she’s not going to spend time here the week before the South Carolina primary, what do you think the chances are she’s coming back after the primary? And what are the chances she’s coming back when she’s president?”

But Mr. Clinton, still popular here, promised his wife would be dedicated to South Carolinians as he crisscrossed the state and answered voters’ questions on policy. He also scolded the press, saying the focus on the Obama-Clinton spat is denying local voters the policy discussion they deserve.

He added that he thinks Mr. Obama landed the first political punch.

“He started it by saying my wife was untruthful months and months ago,” he said. “I have nothing bad to say about him. But the factual statements I made are accurate, and I would never had made them if someone else hadn’t made them.”

After concluding a campaign stop at Hugers Restaurant in Charleston, he blamed the press for blowing his comments out of proportion and the Obama campaign for trying to take the election away from South Carolina voters by focusing on him and not the issues.

“Not one person here asked about that, not one. The people of South Carolina don’t care about it, but the Obama people keep feeding it to you, and you suck it up, and you are taking this election away from them,” Mr. Clinton said. “And all you want is another story. Shame on you.”

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