Obama Vows He Will Not Imitate Clinton’s Dishonest Campaign Tactics

An interview with Barack Obama is scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday. Obama both argues that Swift Boating won’t sink his campaign and has vowed not to resort to such tactics as Hillary Clinton has:

Asked by Kroft if he will be able to endure attacks from “swift-boating” Republicans who may use his race or his youthful drug use against him, Obama replies, “Whoever wins this Democratic primary…they’re the toughest, baddest candidate on the block. And if I beat Senator Clinton, then I will be more than capable of beating the Republicans. And if I don’t, then she’ll be the nominee and [race or past drug use] will be a moot point.”

But the senator from Illinois vowed not to use such tactics himself to beat Hillary Clinton. Kroft’s question on whether he would pull out any “Clinton skeletons” prompted Obama to say, “We don’t play that. I mean, one of the rules that I laid down very early in this campaign was that we will be fierce competitors but we will have some ground rules. And one of the ground rules for me is that we battle on policy differences, and that if we draw a contrast between Senator Clinton and myself, then it is based on fact,” he tells Kroft.

Then Obama promises, “We’re not going to fabricate things. We’re not going to try to distort or twist her positions.”

While Obama promises not to resort to such tactics, Clinton has distorted Obama’s positions, statements, and record on many occasions. These include distorting Obama’s position on Social Security, abortion rights, the Iraq war, responding to the mortgage crisis. Clinton has also distorted Obama’s statements in an interview where Ronald Reagan and Republican ideas were discussed and has distorted the meaning of voting present in the Illinois legislature. I’ve reviewed each of these distortions in previous posts, and recently posted an excellent video from Lawrence Lessig which also reviews these episodes.

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