Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Thursday, November 29, 2007
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 29 Nov 2007 06:35:03 -0500

HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT NEWS BRIEFING (Executive Version)
Full version is attached and available online at http://www.bulletinnews.com/clinton

TO: CLINTON CAMPAIGN

DATE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2007 6:30 AM EST

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Clinton Accuses Obama Of Watering Down Health Care Plan.

+ Bill Clinton's Apparent Inconsistency On Iraq War Draws Media Scrutiny.

+ Obama Closes On Clinton In South Carolina; GOP Race Remains Fluid.

+ Clinton Lead Dwindles, Romney's Grows In New Hampshire Poll.

+ Robert Kennedy Jr Endorses Clinton.

+ Kondracke Says Clinton Loss In Iowa Could Bring "Cascade" To Nomination Defeat.

+ Obama Helped Former Boss Land $1 Million From Chicago Charity.

+ Obama Fights Rumors Related To Muslim Background.

+ As President, Obama Says He'd Hire Bill Clinton "In A Second."

+ Edwards Campaign Won't Release Tar Heels Ticket "Wish List."

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

CLINTON ACCUSES OBAMA OF WATERING DOWN HEALTH CARE PLAN. Sen. Hillary Clinton criticized Sen. Barack Obama's take on health care reform as inadequately universal and similar in nature to Republican proposals. The AP (11/29, Espo) reports that Clinton accused Obama "of flinching from the struggle to provide health care for all Americans and said, 'I am not afraid of the Republican attacks' on the subject. 'We've got to put up a candidate who's willing to stand up for it and fight for it,' said the former first lady in her most pointed criticism to date of" Obama. Clinton further called Obama equivocal on his plan's universality, while Obama countered that Clinton "was making 'more of a political point' than anything else. He said while her plan nominally requires coverage for all, 'she hasn't told anybody how she would enforce this mandate.'" Meanwhile, "Not to be outdone, [John] Edwards released a statement Wednesday outlining how he would enforce a coverage mandate." This article was published in some 80 papers and websites, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal, the Albany Times Union, the Charlotte Observer and the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.

ABC World News (11/28, story 6, 2:45, Snow, 8.78M) reported, "In Des Moines today, Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama's health plan." Senator Hillary Clinton: "When it comes to truth in labeling, it simply flunks the test." CNN's The Situation Room (11/28, 4:05 p.m., Blitzer) reported, "today Senator Clinton slammed her opponent Barack Obama on health care" saying his plan "will leave 15 million Americans without healthcare."

The Des Moines Register (11/28, Jacobs, Clayworth, 158K) reported on its website that Clinton said Obama's "plan for helping uninsured Americans 'flunks the test,'" and "singled out Obama for claiming to have a 'universal' health care proposal when his plan would in fact leave 15 million uninsured. 'He has called his plan universal, then he called it 'virtually universal,' but it is not either,' said Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York. 'When it comes to truth in labeling, his plan simply flunks the test.' Obama's camp accused Clinton of picking a policy fight because her lead is slipping in Iowa." Speaking in Ankeny, Iowa, Clinton "said all the other Democratic candidates except Obama 'agree with me' that the government should require all Americans to buy health insurance. If they can't afford it, the government would help them pay for it, she said."

Obama, Edwards Outline Sanctions For Mandatory Coverage Scofflaws. The Washington Post (11/28, Murray, Bacon Jr., 723K) reported on its 'The Trail' blog that Clinton "offered her harshest critique yet of Sen. Barack Obama's approach to health care reform. Meanwhile, in the ongoing debate over which Democratic candidate offers the best plan, Obama and John Edwards outlined ways in which they would force people to purchase coverage. In an effort to provide insurance to the estimated 47 million Americans who don't have it, both Clinton and Edwards have called for mandating health coverage. But yesterday for the first time, Edwards outlined the consequences for people who don't want to buy insurance, proposing to garnish their wages. Obama, who would require all parents to provide coverage for their children, said he would fine parents who failed to do so, although he did not detail how much this would cost."

BILL CLINTON'S APPARENT INCONSISTENCY ON IRAQ WAR DRAWS MEDIA SCRUTINY. The CBS Evening News (11/28, story 3, 1:20, Couric, 7.66M) reported, "Bill Clinton is supposed to be Hillary Clinton's secret weapon on the campaign trail, but he may have caused a problem for her in Iowa." During a "campaign stop yesterday, the former president brought up the Iraq war." Bill Clinton: "Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning." Couric: "He opposed Iraq from the beginning, he said. But that doesn't square with his past statements. In 2002, he supported the Senate resolution that authorized military force against Iraq, a resolution Hillary Clinton voted for and is now trying to distance herself from."

ABC World News (11/28, story 6, 2:45, Snow, 8.78M) reported, "What may draw fire from Clinton's opponents is something her husband said in Iowa yesterday." Bill Clinton, former President of the United States: "Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers." Snow: "That quick statement that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning sounds to most trained ears like rewriting history." Ron Fournier, political writer, hotsoup.com: "He was speaking to the crowd, which Clinton tends to do. He was giving them what they wanted to hear." Snow: "In the run-up to the war, Bill Clinton did not clearly publicly oppose it. He consistently called for UN weapons inspectors to be given more time to do their work in Iraq, yet, he railed against Saddam Hussein." On a "conference call with reporters today, Senator Obama was asked about Bill Clinton's claim that he opposed the war from the beginning." Senator Barack Obama: "Well, if he did, I don't think most of us heard about it." Snow: "Clinton advisors defended the President."

NBC Nightly News (11/28, story 5, 3:00, Taibbi, 9.87M) reported it "raised eyebrows when former President Bill Clinton who once told TIME Magazine, I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq. And his would-be president wife has not disavowed her vote to authorize said this in Iowa." Bill Clinton: "Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning." Taibbi: "Opposed Iraq from the beginning? That was new. But with his wife in a nail biter in Iowa against avowed anti-war candidates and Barack Obama, it wasn't just Republicans wondering whether the Clintons, plural, were trying to rewrite history." David Gergen, Harvard Kennedy School of Government: "It's awkward for his wife. It resurrects an issue that she would like to have go away, and that is, where was she, where was he, were they both on this war?"

The Washington Post (11/29, A8, Kessler, Kornblut, 723K) reports that former Bush administration White House director of Persian Gulf affairs Hillary Mann Leverett "disputed Bill Clinton's statement this week that he 'opposed Iraq from the beginning,' saying that the former president was privately briefed by top White House officials about war planning in 2003 and that he told them he supported the invasion. Clinton's comments in Iowa on Tuesday went far beyond more nuanced remarks he made about the conflict in 2003. But the disclosure of his presence in briefings by Rice -- and his private expressions of support -- may add to the headaches that the former president has given his wife's campaign in recent weeks."

Bill Clinton's Comments Seen As "Misleading, Self-Absorbed." The AP (11/28, Fournier) reports that Clinton "was long-winded, misleading and self-absorbed. 'Good Bill' and 'Bad Bill' (his nickname among some aides) returned to the public arena Tuesday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brandished her double-edged sword of a husband to fend off rivals in the Jan. 3 caucus fight." In the first 10 minutes of his speech, "he used the word 'I' a total of 94 times and mentioned 'Hillary' just seven times in an address that was as much about his legacy as it was about his wife's candidacy." The piece continues to detail Clinton's statement about the war in Iraq, continuing, "In truth, Clinton did not oppose the Iraq war from the start - at least not publicly. If the former president secretly opposed the war but did not want to speak against a sitting president (as some of his aides now claim), what moral authority does he have now? And did he share his objections with his wife? She started out as a hawkish Democrat but is now appealing to anti-war voters." This article was posted on the website of MSNBC.

OBAMA CLOSES ON CLINTON IN SOUTH CAROLINA; GOP RACE REMAINS FLUID. The State (SC) (11/29, O'Connor, 112K) reports that a Clemson University Palmetto Poll of 450 "registered and likely" South Carolina Democratic primary voters conducted Nov. 14-27 (+/- 4.6%) shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential field with 19%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama with 17% and John Edwards with 12%. On the GOP side, the Clemson University Palmetto Poll of 450 "registered and likely" South Carolina Republican primary voters conducted Nov. 14-27 (+/- 4.62%) shows Mitt Romney leading with 17%, followed by Fred Thompson with 15%, Mike Huckabee with 13%, Sen. John McCain with 11%, Rudy Giuliani with 9% and Rep. Ron Paul with 6%. The State notes that Giuliani "enjoys just half the approval he did in an August Clemson University poll, when he claimed 18 percent of voters. Likewise, Clinton's double-digit lead has narrowed, down 7 percentage points, from 26 percent, since August.

CLINTON LEAD DWINDLES, ROMNEY'S GROWS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL. The AP (11/28) reports on the results of a Suffolk University Political Research Center for WHDH-TV. The survey of 600 likely primary voters, including 300 Republicans (+/- 5.65%) and 300 Democrats (+/- 5.65%), conducted over November 25-27, shows that on the Democratic side, 34% would vote for Hillary Clinton; 22% would vote for Barack Obama; 15% would vote for John Edwards; 9% would vote for Bill Richardson, and 12% were undecided.

On the Republican side, 34% would vote for Mitt Romney; 20% would vote for Rudy Giuliani; 13% would vote for John McCain; 8% would vote for Ron Paul; 7% would vote for Mike Huckabee; and 14% were undecided.

The AP adds that "compared to a June poll by Suffolk University, Clinton appears to be losing ground to Obama. In the earlier poll, Clinton had an 18-point lead over Obama compared to a 12-point spread in the latest poll. On the Republican side, Romney is pulling away from Giuliani."

ROBERT KENNEDY JR ENDORSES CLINTON. The AP (11/29) reports Hillary Clinton "has collected the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr." Kenney plans to "announce his endorsement Thursday in a series of appearances in eastern Iowa. The endorsement announcement was included in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday night." Kennedy said "Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience to bring the war in Iraq to an end and reverse the potentially devastating effects of global warming."

KONDRACKE SAYS CLINTON LOSS IN IOWA COULD BRING "CASCADE" TO NOMINATION DEFEAT. In a column posted on the website of Roll Call (11/28), Morton M. Kondracke suggests that Sen. Hillary Clinton is still likely to be the Democratic nominee and president, but that it's "a lot less certain than it used to be. ... if Clinton wins the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, she's almost certain to be the nominee. But now you can easily see her losing in Iowa. And if she finishes third or significantly trails as No. 2 - especially behind Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) - it could set off a cascade that causes her to lose New Hampshire and then the nomination. Polls suggest that Clinton has built up lots of firewalls in states after New Hampshire. ... Yet, defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire could burn through the firewalls and re-create the dynamic of 1984, where the establishment candidate, former Vice President Walter Mondale, almost lost the nomination to fresh-face challenger Sen. Gary Hart (Colo.)."

OBAMA HELPED FORMER BOSS LAND $1 MILLION FROM CHICAGO CHARITY. The Chicago Sun-Times (11/29, Novak) reports, "Seven years ago, Sen. Barack Obama was on the board of a Chicago charity when his former boss, Allison S. Davis, came looking for money. At the time, Davis was a developer represented by the law firm where Obama worked, as well as a small contributor to Obama's political campaign funds. He wanted the charity to help fund his plans to build housing for low-income Chicagoans. Obama agreed. He voted with other directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago to invest $1 million with Neighborhood Rejuvenation Partners L.P., a $17 million partnership that Davis still operates. It's not clear whether Obama told other board members of his ties to Davis, whose family would go on to donate more than $25,000 to Obama's political campaigns, including his bid to be president of the United States. 'Let me get back to you on that,' Obama presidential campaign spokesman Bill Burton said when asked about that two weeks ago. He never did." The Sun-Times notes, "The Woods Fund -- whose board is chaired by Laura Washington, an opinion-page columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times -- has no records to show whether the board knew about Obama's ties to Davis, said Woods Fund president Deborah Harrington. Under its agreement with Davis, Harrington said, the fund cannot disclose how Davis has spent the money."

OBAMA FIGHTS RUMORS RELATED TO MUSLIM BACKGROUND. A front-page story in the Washington Post (11/29, A1, Bacon Jr., 723K) reports on the attention focused on Sen. Barack Obama's "connections to the Muslim world," noting that despite his membership in a Christian church in Chicago, Obama "has had to combat rumors that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10." The Post notes the persistence of rumors about Obama being "a 'Muslim plant' in a conspiracy against America." Obama has mentioned his paternal grandfather's Muslim faith "as part of his case that he is prepared to handle foreign policy." However, "'If I were a Muslim, I would let you know,' he said in Dubuque, Iowa, recently, according to CNN.com. 'But I'm a member of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. We've got the best choir in town, and if you want to come and worship with us, you are more than welcome.'"

AS PRESIDENT, OBAMA SAYS HE'D HIRE BILL CLINTON "IN A SECOND." The New York Post (11/29, Haberman, 648K) reports, "He's running hard to topple Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primary, but Barack Obama says he would hire her 'talented' husband 'in a second' if he won the White House, according to Time magazine. In an interview that hits newsstands tomorrow, the Illinois underdog - asked whether he would hire Bill Clinton for a job in an Obama administration were he to win in 2008 - said, 'In a second.' 'There are few more talented people in this country,' said Obama, who also said he would bring on former Vice President Al Gore 'in a minute,' citing Gore's work on climate change and global warming."

EDWARDS CAMPAIGN WON'T RELEASE TAR HEELS TICKET "WISH LIST." The AP (11/29, Baker) reports, "When John Edwards returned to his alma mater in 2005 to found a poverty think tank, the multimillionaire attorney sought more than just a salary: He also wanted tickets to University of North Carolina sporting events. But the exact details of what Edwards asked of the Tar Heels remain a secret. Neither the school nor the Democratic presidential candidate is willing to release a 'ticket wishlist' described in an e-mail between an Edwards adviser and the school's former law school dean." Noting the scarcity of Tar Heels tickets given the popularity of the school's athletic program, the AP adds, "School spokesman Mike McFarland said only a select group of senior administrators -- such as deans and vice chancellors -- are provided or promised sports tickets in connection with the hiring process. Edwards was not in that category, he said. 'Senator Edwards received no tickets -- and no promise of tickets -- in connection with his university employment,' he said." This article was published in at least 68 papers and websites, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Examiner, the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer, and Newsday.

Copyright 2007 by the Bulletin News Network, Inc. Reproduction without permission prohibited. Editorial content is drawn from thousands of newspapers, national magazines, national and local television programs, and radio broadcasts. The Hillary For President News Briefing is published five days a week by BulletinNews, which creates custom news briefings for government and corporate leaders. We can be found on the Web at BulletinNews.com, [email-masked], or called at (703) 749-0040.