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CINCINNATI — Hillary Clinton slammed rival Barack Obama on Saturday for campaign leaflets on her health-care plan that she called "blatantly false" and accused him of using Republican tactics in their contest for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.
In a bitter exchange, the Obama campaign defended the leaflet as accurate and decried Ms. Clinton's "negative campaign."
"Shame on you, Barack Obama," Ms. Clinton said, speaking to reporters after a rally in Ohio, a state that is key to her struggling campaign.
Brandishing a copy of the leaflet, Ms. Clinton said the Obama campaign was spreading "false, misleading, discredited information" about her health-care plan.
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., greets supporters during a campaign stop at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College in Cincinnati, Ohio, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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"Senator Obama knows it is not true that my plan forces people to buy insurance even if they can't afford it," Ms. Clinton said. "It is blatantly false and yet he continues to spend millions of dollars perpetuating falsehoods. It is not hopeful. It is destructive, particularly for a Democrat to be discrediting universal health care."
Mr. Obama defended the mailings as accurate and rejected Clinton's complaint as a political ploy. He said that despite her current criticism of NAFTA, she supported the trade agreement when it passed during her husband's administration.
“You can't be for something and take credit for an administration ... and then when you run for president say that you didn't really mean what you said way back then. It doesn't work like that,” he said to cheers at a rally in Akron.
The long distance clash erupted as the two Democrats campaigned separately across Ohio, one of two big states with primaries on March 4.
Mr. Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses, and some of Clinton's supporters have said she must win both Ohio and Texas next week to keep her hopes alive of winning the party nomination. Recent polls show Ohio is close, and Texas closer.
Ms. Clinton's frustration was evident as she criticized Mr. Obama in unusually strong terms – a few days after ending a nationally televised debate by saying she was “honoured to be here with” him in a historic race between a black man and a woman.
She said by his actions, Mr. Obama was giving “aid and comfort to the very special interests and their allies in the Republican Party who are against doing what we want to do for America.”
“Meet me in Ohio,” she said. “Let's have a debate about your tactics and your behaviour in this campaign.” The two are scheduled to debate next Tuesday in Cleveland.
In her criticism of Mr. Obama, she asked, “Since when do Democrats attack one another on universal health care?”
Mr. Obama had a ready reply to that. “Well, when she started to say I was against universal health care … which she does every single day,” he said.
Since late last year, Ms. Clinton has consistently attacked Mr. Obama's health-care plan, saying it would leave 15 million Americans uninsured.
Ms. Clinton's advisers have repeatedly criticized the Obama campaign's mailings, both of which went out in the last several days.
One says her plan for universal coverage would “force” everyone to purchase insurance even if they can't afford it. Her plan requires everyone to be covered, but it offers tax credits and other subsidies to make insurance more affordable.
Mr. Obama's plan does not include the so-called “individual mandate” for adults, and he has argued that people cannot be required to buy coverage if they can't afford it. He has said his first priority is bringing down costs.
MARCH 4 CONTESTS
Ms. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, would be the first female U.S. president if she won the general election, and Mr. Obama, an Illinois senator, would be the first black U.S. president.
Mr. Obama has won 10 consecutive state nominating contests since the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5. The string of victories has put him ahead in the race for delegates to a nominating convention this summer, where the party will pick a candidate for the November election.
Many analysts say Ms. Clinton must win contests in the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas on March 4 to cut Mr. Obama's lead and still have a chance at the nomination.
Campaigning in Ohio, Mr. Obama told a roundtable on health care at a hospital in Columbus that his health-care plan would cut medical costs more than Ms. Clinton's and that hers would force people to buy health insurance.
The Illinois senator touched on the issue that Ms. Clinton had complained about when he said they both are seeking universal health care.
"The main difference between us is that Senator Clinton includes a mandate, which means she'd have the government force you to buy health insurance, and she said that she'd consider ‘going after your wages' if you don't," Mr. Obama said, adding that he disagreed with that approach.
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Meanwhile, Ms. Clinton said the campaign leaflet on health care reminded her of health insurance industry attacks on her plan. She also said another leaflet Mr. Obama's campaign issued misrepresented her views on trade agreements such as NAFTA.
"Let's have a real campaign. Enough with the speeches and big rallies and then using tactics that are right out of Karl Rove's play book," she said, referring to the Republican political strategist behind George W. Bush's winning presidential campaigns.
Ms. Clinton said Mr. Obama's proposal to fix problems of health insurance availability would leave 15 million Americans out, while hers would be universal.
"I'm not going to give up on it [universal care] the way Senator Obama has given up on it," she said.
At the earlier rally Ms. Clinton had trained her fire on Bush to try to undermine Mr. Obama's message of change.
Ms. Clinton said President Bush, who campaigned on a platform of "compassionate conservatism," also had promised Americans change.
"He promised change, didn't he?" she said of Mr. Bush. "The American people got shafted and we're going to have to make up for it."
When the new president starts the job next year, Ms. Clinton said there would be a lot of work waiting on the desk in the Oval Office: "Let's imagine a folder … on the front of that folder it says something like George Bush's mess," she said. "That's going to be a big folder."
With files from Beth Fouhy, Associated Press
