Clinton,Obama Clash in Personal Terms

This is equally desperate and ridiculous:

Obama aides found themselves on the defensive after Clinton said during Saturday's debate that Obama's New Hampshire campaign co-chairman, Jim Demers, is a lobbyist whose clients include pharmaceutical companies. The Clinton campaign kept up the criticism Sunday morning in a teleconference call with reporters, noting that Obama has repeatedly said he does not take money from federal lobbyists or political action committees.

Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Demers is a state lobbyist and does not do business involving federal legislation or regulation. He said the campaign has drawn a distinction between lobbyists who are registered to work at the state level and those who lobby the federal government.

"A ban on lobbying money and PACs is far from perfect," Gibbs said. "There is a difference between a college football player and professional football player," he added.

During the debate, while Clinton referred to Demers, the camera caught Obama shaking his head, saying "not so."

"He was shaking his head because her implication was that it violated our lobbyist pledge and his role quite clearly does not," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

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Clinton, Obama Clash in Personal Terms
By JIM KUHNHENN 01.06.08, 6:22 PM ET

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/06/ap4499063.html

MANCHESTER, N.H. - The leading Democratic presidential candidates clashed Sunday heading into the slushy New Hampshire homestretch, deriding each others' claims to be the true candidate of change. Clinton told Democratic voters they should elect "a doer, not a talker." Obama countered that his critics are stuck in the politics of the past.