early and often

Hill Wins in Obama Spat, Edwards Aide Says

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Obama campaigning in Ohio Tuesday.Photo: Getty Images/AFP


Barack Obama should have ignored the Hillary Clinton camp’s moral-minded broadsides over David Geffen’s the-Clintons-are-liars comments last week, one of John Edwards’s strategists says. “They made it a five-day story, and it knocked Barack off his pedestal,” the strategist says. “They shouldn’t have answered back. It would have gone away. I think Barack definitely lost that round.” The Edwards people know of what they speak. In January, the strategist recalls, Edwards spoke at Riverside Church, where he said that “silence is betrayal” on the Iraq war. As if on cue, Hillary’s longtime attack dog, Howard Wolfson, said the wording was “clearly aimed” at Hillary, and he lashed out at Edwards, claiming the ex–North Carolina senator was violating a campaign promise he made back in ‘04 to keep races among Democrats “positive.” Edward’s didn’t take the bait. And the issue, unlike this time, disappeared. —Geoffrey Gray

Hill Wins in Obama Spat, Edwards Aide Says