Round 1 in Fight for White House: Clinton vs. Obama

Feb. 22, 2007 — -- The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses may be 10 months away, but the bitter sniping between Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., is indicative of just how competitive the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has become.

And, sensing an opening, other Democrats also have begun entering the fray.

This morning, for example, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., said on NBC's "Today" show: "I think it's awfully early for that sort of sniping back and forth."

Edwards added that he wanted to run a "positive campaign," his pledge coming despite the fact that his is arguably the most in-your-face and aggressive campaign of all the Democrats, with constant insinuations that Clinton is not being honest when she refuses to call her vote to authorize use of force in Iraq a "mistake."

The Clinton-Obama dust-up began when media mogul David Geffen, a producer of "Cats" and "Dreamgirls," woke up the Clinton campaign with catty comments to columnist Maureen Dowd in Wednesday's New York Times.

After throwing Obama a big fundraiser Tuesday, Geffen lashed out at Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, telling the Times, "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease. It's troubling."

Geffen slammed the New York senator as uberambitious and polarizing, and he went after the former president's personal life, calling him "a reckless guy" and speculating that he hadn't changed much since the Monica Lewinsky days.

The Clinton campaign struck back by slamming Obama, insinuating that he was being hypocritical for tolerating Geffen's comments while campaigning as a positive candidate who seeks to unite the nation.

"He decries the politics of 'slash and burn,' and yet his chief supporters in California are engaged in the politics of slash and burn," said Howard Wolfson, Clinton's spokesman.

The Obama campaign pushed back, saying, "The Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln Bedroom."