Clinton, Obama contest peaks near eve of March 4

by Rick Pearson and Christi Parsons

WACO, Texas — Bracing for a long weekend of campaigning before critical Democratic primaries that could clarify a presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama exchanged TV ads today that raised the chilling specter of who would best handle a national emergency while children lie sleeping in their beds.

Clinton’s campaign also used Monday’s scheduled beginning for the Chicago federal corruption trial of political insider Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a fundraiser for several prominent Illinois politicians, including Obama, to question whether the Illinois senator has been scrutinized enough to be the Democrat’s nominee.

Clinton began the TV volleying by debuting an ad in Texas showing scenes of kids tucked into their beds, a mother’s watchful eye. A narrator notes that a phone is ringing in the White House. “It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep,” the narrator says. “Who do you want answering the phone?”

The Obama campaign initially contended the Clinton camp was resurrecting a scare tactic reminiscent of the famed 1964 “Daisy” ad in which President Lyndon Johnson’s commercial aimed at GOP challenger Barry Goldwater morphed a girl counting daisy pedals into a countdown of a nuclear blast that erupted into a mushroom cloud.

But hours after criticizing the ad as fear-mongering, Obama’s campaign ran its own version of the ad. It borrowed scenes of the sleeping children and noting the ringing 3 a.m. phone, but adding Obama’s campaign hallmark. “When that call gets answered, shouldn’t the president be the one—the only one—who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start?” a narrator asks.

Needing victories on Tuesday in the major primary states of Ohio and Texas to stall Obama’s momentum, the Clinton campaign maintained their ad echoed her campaign trail refrain in recent days that she was more experienced to serve as commander in chief in a world fraught with danger.

Clinton, herself, used the ad to buttress in even stronger language her belief that Obama’s eloquence on the stump does not translate into decision-making experience.

“There’s a big difference between delivering a speech at an anti-war rally as a state senator and picking up that phone in the White House at 3 a.m. in the morning to deal with an international crisis,” Clinton told a rally featuring veterans in Waco. “There’s a difference between making a speech when you have no responsibility and having to step up and take charge and take responsibility for your actions.”

Clinton went on to criticize Obama as “missing in action” on a vote that declared Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a roll call he missed while on a fundraising trip while she voted for it. She also complained that Obama has failed to call a meeting of his Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that would have the power to review NATO’s role in Afghanistan.

Using another Cold War image, Obama responded to the Clinton ad by telling a crowd in Houston that “we have had a red phone moment. It was the decision to invade Iraq. And, Sen. Clinton gave the wrong answer…. I stood up and I said that a war in Iraq would be unwise.”

As Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), endorsed Obama, helping to back up the first-term senator’s foreign affairs credentials, an Obama adviser ridiculed Clinton’s criticisms of middle-of-the-night preparedness in a conference call with reporters. Asked if the two-term New York senator should quit the Democratic race if she does not win Ohio and Texas on March 4, former Navy Secy. Richard Danzig said, “I would encourage you to, on March 5, call Sen. Clinton at 3 a.m. and put that question.”

But Danzig went on his view of presidential phone skills and work-hours etiquette.

“Presidents ought not, I think, to be reactive answering phone calls that come in at the moment of a crisis and they ought not, by and large, be operating in the middle of the night.”

Beyond the dueling TV ads, the Clinton campaign continued to press Obama about a Canadian television report that a senior Obama strategist allegedly contacted the Canadian consulate in Chicago to explain that the Illinois senator’s criticisms of the North American Free Trade Agreement should not be taken seriously.

The CTV identified the Obama aide as Austan Goolsbee, the candidate’s senior economic adviser. But Obama spokesman Bill Burton said “there was no one at any level of our campaign, at any point, anywhere, who said or otherwise implied Obama was backing away from his consistent position on trade.” ABC News reported Goolsbee acknowledged speaking to the Canadian consulate general but would not comment on whether the subject included NAFTA.

NAFTA is a major issue in the industrial heartland of Ohio, which has seen a severe loss of manufacturing jobs. Both candidates recently said they would urge the United States opt out of NAFTA unless rules are enacted to protect labor and environmental standards. NAFTA was passed under the administration of Clinton's husband, Presidetnt Bill Clinton. Obama's campaign contends she is trying to distance herself from bad things in her husband's administration while claiming credit for positive things that happened.

With the federal trial of Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko set to begin Monday, a day before the week’s critical primaries, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said the Illinois senator has neither been asked or have answered questions about their relationship.

“What is the nature of the relationship? How many fundraisers were held? How much money was raised? How many meetings were attended? What was said at those meetings? Did Tony Rezko attempt to get jobs for Obama allies?” Wolfson asked.

Prosecutors allege Rezko participated in a scheme in which kickbacks were paid by firms seeking state business and used, in part, for campaign donations to Obama. Obama has not been charged and his campaign has donated more than $150,000, what it says is the value of the tainted money, to charity.