With Opposition Research, Tone Is Revealing

By Politics
Saturday, June 16, 2007

In the shadowy world of opposition research and not-for-attribution dossiers, things can get confusing.

On Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign circulated a memo criticizing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "(D-Punjab)" for having financial ties to India and encouraging the outsourcing of jobs. It included a joke the senator from New York told at a fundraiser with Indian Americans last year: "I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily."

After the oppo research was circulated and generated some bad press for Clinton -- "Punjab Hillary!" blared the headline of JustHillary.com, a site devoted to chronicling the former first lady -- much of the attention shifted to the senator from Illinois, who trails Clinton in most polls. After all, he has worked to convey that his campaign would be elevated above such rough and tough tactics as circulating opposition research.

The Obama campaign defended the memo as legitimate research. "The intent of the document was to discuss the issue of outsourcing, but we regret the tone that parts of the document took," said David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.

Clinton's campaign declined to make an official comment.

-- Anne E. Kornblut

Romney's Conviction

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney addressed an audience with some concerns about his shifting positions on abortion -- National Right to Life -- by saying his newfound opposition to abortion rights is his heartfelt "conviction."

"I know that it is not time but conviction that unites us. I proudly follow a long line of converts -- George Herbert Walker Bush, Henry Hyde and Ronald Reagan, to name a few. I am evidence that your work, that your relentless campaign to promote the sanctity of human life, bears fruit," he told hundreds of antiabortion activists in Kansas City, Mo.

"My experience as governor taught me firsthand that the threat to our culture is real," Romney said. "When responsibility for life or ending life was placed in my hands, I made the right decision."

Romney has been attacked by his opponents for changing positions on abortion -- he promised as governor to uphold laws affirming a woman's right to an abortion. Romney said that while he always personally opposed abortion, he ultimately became an opponent of laws protecting abortion rights during the debate over research on embryonic stem cells in Massachusetts.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb

Just a Dinner Date

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is heading to New Hampshire this weekend, following in the path of many a presidential candidate. Yet, he insists, he's no candidate.

"People will read into the fact that I'm going to be in New Hampshire tomorrow," Bloomberg said yesterday on his radio show. "The truth of the matter is I'm going to be in New Hampshire just for dinner" -- at his girlfriend's college reunion.

As for running for president, he said, "I don't think the country is quite ready for me."

-- Associated Press

Speaking Directly

Democrats Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are objecting to a requirement that all presidential candidates in a debate on the Spanish-language television network Univision speak in English.

The two have signed a letter to Univision, which is trying to organize a Democratic presidential debate for Sept. 9 in Miami. The audio would be translated into Spanish.

Both candidates speak Spanish fluently and say they would prefer to address Spanish-speaking viewers without a translator. Dodd, the senator from Connecticut who wrote the letter, and Richardson, the New Mexico governor who signed on, embraced the debate with the understanding that they would be able to speak Spanish, and both campaigns say they feel that the rules have been altered to benefit those who don't.

-- Associated Press