The Trail

SWIFT RESPONSES ON SWIFT BOATS

Bill Clinton Takes Heat For a Comparison to 2004

Responding to comments Bill Clinton made about the treatment of his wife on the campaign trail, Democratic contenders blasted the former president for comparing recent criticism of her to the "Swift-boating" that Sen. John Kerry received in 2004.

Clinton, on a Las Vegas campaign swing, said that he "had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy-land again," as the candidates had during the last campaign.

"We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff. And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he'd done in his life. When that scandalous Swift-boat ad was run against Senator Kerry," Clinton said.

In response, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said he was "stunned" to hear Clinton compare the debate to the Republican attacks of 2004. "How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody's military record is a reach," Obama said, according to the Associated Press.

Another senator running for the Democratic nomination, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, echoed his remarks.

"To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of Swift-boating is way over the top. If elected to the presidency, there will be a lot of tough questions, and if you can't handle it in a debate without accusing everybody who has an issue with you of piling on or a sexist attack, that's unwise and it's false," Dodd said.

The Clinton campaign hit back. A spokesman, Phil Singer, accused Obama of intentionally misconstruing the former president's remarks -- Clinton was talking about Republicans, not fellow Democrats, Singer said -- and he questioned Obama's loyalty to the party.

"While Senator Obama copies John Edwards by spending his days attacking other Democrats, Senator Clinton is talking about how she'll address the nation's energy crisis," Singer said. "Senator Obama is well aware that the former president was saying that the Republicans will do anything to play politics with a serious issue. So instead of launching another attack against the Clintons, Senator Obama should join with them in working to prevent all Democrats from being attacked by the GOP."

Hillary Clinton in a CNN interview, admitted her debate performance had left room for improvement. "Well, I understand the necessity for criticism. We are getting toward the end of a very long presidential primary process. And I wasn't at my best the other night. We have had a bunch of debates, and you know, I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list."

In the same interview, the senator from New York denied she supported giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. "It depends upon what state they're in. It depends upon what they think the risks are. You know. A governor of New York, that has a lot of immigrants, many of whom we know are not their legally, has to worry about security. A governor of another state where that's not a problem doesn't," Clinton said.

-- Anne E. Kornblut