http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=6FC4A37C-3048-5C12-0024C86FA65BFFE5 Bill Clinton sounds off on backlash
By: Mike Allen
January 12, 2008 08:22 PM EST
Former President Bill Clinton is expressing frustration with the backlash in the black community over his claim in New Hampshire that the press has coddled Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill).
“This is what happens any time anyone tries to question a statement or a position of Senator Obama,” Clinton says in an interview now airing on Sirius satellite radio. “The response is, ‘You’re attacking me personally,’ and that relieves him of the obligation to address the substance.”
Obama has not said he took the remarks personally, but they rankled some of his supporters.
As part of a damage-control effort, Clinton spoke to Mark Thompson, a well-known African-American community leader who is host of the “Make It Plain” program on Talk Left, Sirius’ liberal talk channel. Sirius has put the whole interview online.
The former president was attempting to tamp down criticism for an assertion he made toward the end of a town hall meeting at Dartmouth College, the day before the New Hampshire primary. He heatedly told the crowd that Obama was wrong to claim “no difference in your voting record and Hillary's” on Iraq. ........