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John Edwards blasts Hillary Clinton over planted questions |
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Written by News Editor
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Sunday, 11 November 2007 |
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John Edwards ripped Hillary Clinton Saturday for planting questions at campaign events, saying it's the kind of thing George Bush does.
Clinton's team admitted Friday to asking a Grinnell College student to pose a question about global warming during a recent Iowa campaign stop.
"George Bush goes to events that are staged, where people are screened, where they're only allowed to ask questions if the questions are favorable to George Bush," Edwards told reporters after speaking to the National Farmers Union.
"That's not the way democracy works in Iowa and that's not the way it works in New Hampshire," he said. "We don't stage questions. We go in and answer the questions that are asked."
Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff retorted, "Attacking Democrats is the kind of thing George Bush does, and isn't the way you campaign in Iowa or New Hampshire."
It isn't the only time a staffer has been accused of asking a voter to throw Clinton a softball on the 2008 campaign trail.
Another man, Geoffrey Mitchell, claims a staffer at an April event urged him to ask an Iraq war question that would allow for a favorable comparison between Clinton and rival Barack Obama.
A Clinton aide responding to media reports Saturday said a staffer did speak with Mitchell, but the aide called the chat "innocent" and "not newsworthy."
The shots at Clinton come less than two months before the Jan.3 Iowa caucuses. Edwards and the other Democratic candidates were in Iowa yesterday for the state party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner, an annual marquee event that draws thousands.
The race in Iowa is tight, and Clinton's once-commanding lead in New Hampshire - home of the nation's first primary - has been sliced in half, a new poll shows.
Clinton now leads Obama by 11 points, according to the Marist College poll. She held a 21-point lead in a similar survey last month. In the new poll, 36% of likely primary voters chose Clinton. Obama trailed her with 25% and Edwards was third with 14%. |
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