And this time Barack means business

OK, Barack Obama signals he's taking off the gloves starting now.

The freshman Illinois senator was on CNN's "Situation Room," where the partially bearded Wolf Blitzer was at his hound-dog best, sniffing out the slightest scent of conflict.

"Do I come away from this interview, senator, correctly, in saying that in these last 100 days before the voting actually starts, we're going to see a more aggressive, assertive Barack Obama trying to pinpoint the differences, sharpen the focus between you and your Democratic opposition, including Sen. Clinton?"

While gathering large, enthusiastic crowds, Obama has demonstrated some difficulty gaining political traction running from behind because he's caught between the need to tear down the longtime front-running Hillary Clinton and maintaining his image and message of fresh, new politics and hope.

But here he comes. "There is no doubt that we're moving into a different phase of the campaign," ...

Obama replied. "The first part of the campaign is to offer some biography. And give people a sense of where I've been and what I'm about. In this next phase, we want to make sure that voters understand that on big issues like the decision to go into the war in Iraq, I have real differences with the other candidates and that reflects on my judgment.

"On issues like healthcare, I've got a track record of bringing people together that indicates I would be more successful in actually delivering on universal healthcare than the other candidates in this race.

"And I would not be running if I was not absolutely confident that I have a better chance of unifying the country, overcoming the special interests, speaking the truth to the American people in a way that actually brings about something new, as opposed to looking backwards and simply duplicating some of the politics that we've become so accustomed to and that, frankly, the American people, I think, are sick of."

But Wolf wasn't quite done. Would Obama, he asked, consider Clinton as his vice presidential running mate?

At first, Obama said, "I'm not going to touch that one."

But Wolf was determined to make his way into our blog tonight. He pressed, "Would she be on the short list?"

"Sen. Clinton is a very capable person," Obama replied. "Right now my goal is to make sure that I am the nominee and that she is still the senator from New York."

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[RuthieM]

Why do you headline and start this article like a JOKE? Why haven't you EVER started Hillary's headlines like a joke, like they should be? You need to have more respect for Obama! He deserves in fact more respect than Hillary, with all her flipflopping and deceiving she's doing to the American people. I don't think Obama is 'caught between the need to tear down the (falsely) longtime frontrunning Hillary Clinton and maintaining his image and message of fresh, new politic and hope' as you say. That's been the media's image, that's been the media's mantra of Obama. The media has decided to take any Obama response to Hillary's attacks on him and use it against his so-called politics of hope message. Obama's message of fresh, new politics and hope is just that, and still is, it has absolutely nothing to do with responding to attacks from Clinton, and the public and the media know that, if they don't they should. I think Obama needs to ignore all you Hillaryites and continue to attack her like she should be attacked, and continue to run his campaign on his great message of hope because one has nothing to do with the other, a message that both Hillary and Edwards have copied and adopted ever since Obama first landed on the scene!!! The only reason Hillary's poll numbers are where they are is because she has taken Obama's entire message, ran with it, and her campaign's then marketed her with Obama's message and talking her up as being the inevitable one to win the white house because she is white and because she's a Clinton. However, even with her being white, if HIllary was not a Clinton, she would be lost, she would be nowhere in the polls right now if she were running for president.

(Ans: Try reading this blog more often, not just the Obama items. You'd see the Clinton headlines/stories you say are never here. Same for other candidates. We are an equal opportunity offender.-AM)

[s4watson]

we can see that obama is being more aggressive. i hav not seen one word about hillary flip-floppin(again) on the issue of meeting with world leaders. you all raked obama ovr the coals because SHE said he was being naive. now she turns around and says she would do the same thing, now where is that story?

[Larry from Purdue]

I went through Obama's Campaign training and they told us back in May to "plan to get hot in the last two weeks." We've built a pretty concrete organization that will turn people out in early states.

Barack has lots of valid grounds - policywise not personalitywise - on which to go after Hillary. Especially in terms of not taking lobbyist money. I hope it doesn't fall flat on the ears of the American people because he really does have a lot to offer in terms of new, positive policy proposals that Congress would actually implement.

Obama people: Travel to the nearest 'early state' and knock on doors on a Saturday! The closest office will prepare a "Walk Packet" for any volunteers to knock on the doors of registered Democrats. (public information) We go from Indiana to Iowa and the vast majority of people are happy to talk with us at their front doors.

[jkojs]

No more Clinton dynasty and corrupted Health Industry.

!!! VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA !!!