Subject: Hillary For President News Briefing for Monday, November 26, 2007
From: "Bulletin News Network" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: 26 Nov 2007 06:29:08 -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: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2007 6:30 AM EST

TODAY'S TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEN. CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN:

+ Clinton, Obama Spar Over Health Care In Iowa.

+ Clinton Intensifies Anti-Obama Rhetoric As Both Tout Electability.

+ Clinton Addresses Border Enforcement In Iowa.

+ Clinton Attends Pro-Child Sermon In Des Moines.

+ Clinton To Announce Endorsement In South Carolina On Tuesday.

+ Will: Clinton Would Benefit By Picking Bayh Or Strickland For Vice President.

+ Clinton's Time At California Law Firm Seen As "Shocking" Revelation Of "Radical Ideology."

+ Obama Discusses Race Issues In Iowa.

+ McCain Criticizes Clinton On Iraq War Ad.

Sen. Clinton's Campaign:

CLINTON, OBAMA SPAR OVER HEALTH CARE IN IOWA. In separate events in Iowa Sunday, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama traded broadsides against each other's health care reform plans, generating significant coverage. The AP (11/26, Glover) reports that the two "intensified the bickering" over health care, noting that Clinton "said Obama's proposal was 'crafted for politics' and the latest example of his shifting policy positions. Obama said much the same of her approach." Moreover, Clinton told the AP, "The difference is my health care plan covers every American and Senator Obama's plan will not." Obama countered by criticizing Clinton's call for mandatory coverage, saying, "The reason Americans don't have health insurance isn't because they don't want it, it's because they can't afford it, which is why my plan doesn't have a mandate and goes further in cutting costs than any other proposal offered in this race." However, the AP adds, "Clinton disputed that, saying very similar cost savings are built into hers." This article appears in at least 90 papers and websites, including the Washington Post, the Charlotte Observer, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Benton Crier, the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Albany Times Union, the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier and the New Hampshire Union Leader.

The New York Times (11/25, Healy, Zeleny, 1.18M) reported on its 'The Caucus' blog that Clinton "whacked Senator Barack Obama again – this time by name – over his health insurance plan and the estimates that it would not cover about 15 million Americans. 'It's been kind of confusing following his description of his own plan,' Mrs. Clinton said. 'If you go back and look, he said it was universal, he said it was sort of universal, he said it wasn't universal, he said it covered everybody, he said he didn't cover 15 million, he has a mandate for kids, now he's against mandates. I think you're going to have to ask him what his plan actually does.'" The Times notes that Clinton "refused, again, to answer how she would enforce" mandatory coverage.

USA Today (11/26, 2A, Dilanian, 2.28M) reports Clinton and Obama "battled over whose plan for universal coverage was more workable." Like Romney's "Massachusetts plan, Clinton's would require people to purchase health insurance. Obama criticized that approach during an Iowa campaign stop."

The Washington Post (11/26, A6, Kornblut, Murray, 723K) reports Clinton "stepped up attacks on her closest rival with fewer than six weeks until the first nominating contest. Just weeks ago, Clinton chastised her opponents for 'mudslinging.' But she unapologetically pursued her main challenger, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), over the weekend, standing by her decision to mock Obama's foreign policy experience and attacking his health-care plan -- part of what her advisers described as a new phase of her campaign that will present voters with a 'real choice.'"

CLINTON INTENSIFIES ANTI-OBAMA RHETORIC AS BOTH TOUT ELECTABILITY. The Washington Post (11/26, A6, Kornblut, Murray, 723K) reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton's attacks on Sen. Barack Obama's foreign policy qualifications and on his health care plan come with "her status as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in jeopardy," suggesting that though she has "chastised her opponents for 'mudslinging,' she is now "standing by her decision to mock Obama's foreign policy experience and attacking his health-care plan." Moreover, "Obama and Clinton are locked in a tight race in Iowa with former senator John Edwards (N.C.), and each is putting renewed focus on electability -- a factor that helped turn the state for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) in the 2004 Democratic contest. Although most Democrats at the national level view Clinton as the most viable nominee, Iowans are more receptive to viewing Obama and Edwards that way. All of the campaigns concede electability is a top concern among caucusgoers. Health plans and war policy aside, they want to back a winner."

The AP (11/25, Lorentzen) reports Clinton "maintained Sunday that she's the best candidate to win against Republicans, saying she has more experience battling the GOP than any other candidate in the Democratic field." Clinton said, "I believe that I have a very good argument that I know more about beating Republicans than anybody else running. They've been after me for 15 years, and much to their dismay, I'm still standing. I'm leading in all the polls, I'm beating them in state after state after state." The AP adds Clinton has "been widely criticized by her Democratic rivals who claim she's too polarizing, and can't bring the party together to win the White House." But she "says she has support from around the country, including 'more Democratic support from the so-called red states than anybody else running.'" This article was published in at least 72 papers and websites, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Benton Crier, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Charlotte Observer, the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, the Chicago Tribune and Newsday.

CLINTON ADDRESSES BORDER ENFORCEMENT IN IOWA. The Des Moines Register (11/25, Simons, 158K) reported on its website that Sen. Hillary Clinton, questioned by an audience member at a Perry, Iowa, campaign appearance, said "that immigration reform begins with border security." The Register quotes her stressing the importance of "homeland security" and "tougher, more secure borders." Clinton rejected the notion of deporting all illegal entrants, and "suggested instead that 'everybody come out of the shadows,' and those found to have committed crimes will be immediately deported. Those who haven't, she said, should register and pay back taxes, fines and learn English before joining the line to legalization."

CLINTON ATTENDS PRO-CHILD SERMON IN DES MOINES. The AP (11/26) reports on Sen. Hillary Clinton's attendance of a service at Grace United Methodist Church in Des Moines, Sunday, before her "long day of campaigning." The AP notes that "Former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell, the first woman to hold that job, invited the New York senator to the church. Clinton sat next to Campbell, her Iowa campaign co-chair, during the service. In her sermon, the Rev. Jill Flyr asked the congregation to 'let the candidates know that they need to be strong advocates for children.'"

The Washington Times (11/25, Bellantoni, 87K) reported on its politics blog that Clinton had "the traveling press corps in tow," noting that she "sang and nodded in agreement during the service, and even stuck a contribution on the offering plate before heading out for a full day of campaigning through the Hawkeye State." The Times continues to note the sermon's message on the plight of children in the state, concluding, "Not everyone was excited to see politics in church. 'I don't know how we're going to start service because everyone is out here,' one worshiper complained loudly."

CLINTON TO ANNOUNCE ENDORSEMENT IN SOUTH CAROLINA ON TUESDAY. The Spartanburg Herald Journal (11/26, Spencer) reports, "Making her first visit to Spartanburg this campaign cycle," Sen. Hillary Clinton "will be in town Tuesday morning to announce a new South Carolina endorsement. Her campaign has refused to say whom the endorsement would be coming from, or even hint at what sector that person was affiliated with -- political, religious, business or something else. ... Spartanburg 'is an area in the state that is very important to the campaign, and is relevant to the endorsement Tuesday,' said Zac Wright, a spokesman for Clinton's campaign in South Carolina."

WILL: CLINTON WOULD BENEFIT BY PICKING BAYH OR STRICKLAND FOR VICE PRESIDENT. In his column for Newsweek (11/25, 3.12M) George Will writes, "It is neither pointless nor premature to wonder who each of the four most likely nominees -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney -- might choose to run with." According to Will, Clinton may choose Sen. Evan Bayh, "the preternaturally cautious former two-term governor of Indiana. Winning that state's 11 electoral votes -- it has not voted Democratic since 1964 -- would seriously complicate any Republican's path to 270. If she wants to reach for a bigger electoral-vote prize without removing a Democrat from the Senate, there is Ted Strickland, the popular governor of the Center of the Universe Every Fourth Year, a.k.a. Ohio (20 electoral votes)." Will adds that Giuliani's "biggest weakness is his personal history and his weakest region is the South. ... He could select the...former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, the Baptist minister who is as cuddly as Giuliani is abrasive."

CLINTON'S TIME AT CALIFORNIA LAW FIRM SEEN AS "SHOCKING" REVELATION OF "RADICAL IDEOLOGY." The New York Sun (11/26, Gerstein) runs a 4,600-word article about Sen. Hillary Clinton's "clerkship in 1971 at one of America's most radical law firms, Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein," noting that the "Oakland-based firm was renowned for taking clients others rejected as too controversial, including Communists, draft resisters, and members of the African-American militant group known as the Black Panthers. To this day, Mrs. Clinton's decision to work at the unabashedly left-wing firm is surprising, even shocking, to some of her former colleagues there and to those supporting her bid for the presidency. To the former first lady's enemies and political opponents, her summer at the Treuhaft firm is yet another indication that radical ideology lurks beneath the patina of moderation she has adopted in public life." The article continues to relate the proceeds of a "comprehensive account" of Clinton's "work for the Treuhaft firm, how she got there, and how acquaintances she made that summer surfaced from time to time as her political career unfolded."

OBAMA DISCUSSES RACE ISSUES IN IOWA. The Chicago Tribune (11/26, McCormick, Pearson, 607K) reports Barack Obama "held a rare discussion of racial inequities on the Democratic presidential campaign trail in heavily white Iowa on Sunday while rival Hillary Clinton declared herself to be 'by far' the most electable Democrat in the race." Obama, "speaking to a racially mixed audience of about 500 people at a local high school, conceded some progress had been made on racial issues -- but not enough." Obama said, "On every measure, on income, on health care, on incarceration rates, on the criminal justice system, on housing, on life expectancy, on infant mortality, on almost every single indicator, there is still an enormous gap between black and white."

MCCAIN CRITICIZES CLINTON ON IRAQ WAR AD. On ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos (11/25, 10:13 a.m.), Sen. John McCain was asked to respond to an released by Sen. Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire accusing the GOP of unleashing its "attack machine" on her because "they know that there's one candidate with the strength and experience to get us out of Iraq." McCain responded that he and Clinton have "fundamental disagreements" on withdrawal from Iraq, which he characterizes as "catastrophe for the United States of America." McCain continued to demure on whether Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama would be the greater challenge for the Republicans, labeling them both as "formidable."

The Politico (11/25, Bresnahan) reports McCain, "fresh off his latest visit to Iraq, told This Week's George Stephanopoulos that 'significant progress' is being made in reducing sectarian violence thanks to President Bush's decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. combat troops to the war zone." McCain, who "is trying to ride the improved security situation in Iraq to an improved standing in the polls, took shots at several Democratic candidates, including Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), for their suggestion that the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from Iraq soon." McCain said, "Is that the same Sen. Clinton that said she had to suspend disbelief in order to acknowledge to that the strategy of the surge was succeeding? Clearly, it's succeeding. You would have to suspend disbelief to believe that it's not." The Politico adds that on "the same ABC program, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who has advocated a complete U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, pointed out that dozens of Americans continue to be killed every month in Iraq, in spite of a lower overall level of violence."

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.