Hillary Clinton: Barack Obama Mailers NAFTA Blatantly False

*** UPDATE *** The Obama campaign sends along this response: “Everything in those mailers is completely accurate, unlike the discredited attacks from Hillary Clinton’s negative campaign that have been rejected in South Carolina, Wisconsin, and across America. We look forward to having a debate this Tuesday on the facts, and the facts are that Senator Clinton was a supporter of NAFTA and the China permanent trade treaties until this campaign began. And she herself has said that under the Clinton health care plan, she would consider ‘going after the wages’ of Americans who don't purchase health insurance, whether they can afford it or not.”

After the talk, she continued to take the fight to Obama while talking to reporters, displaying two of Obama's direct mail attack pieces, which she called “blatantly false” and claimed that his rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

"Let's have a real campaign,” she said, her anger palpable. “Enough with the speeches and the big rallies... Shame on you Barack Obama... Meet me in Ohio. Let's have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”

A supporter had showed Clinton the mailers in the rope line earlier at the event. One mailer is about NAFTA, and uses a Newsday quote saying Clinton says it was a "boon" to our economy. She claims never to have said that and that Newsday printed a correction. The second mailer is about health care and says her plan would force people to buy policies they cannot afford. It is the one that resembles the Republican Harry and Louise ad.

Clinton also fielded questions about her campaign's spending habits, saying that the money goes directly to communicating with voters, and defended her position on NAFTA, saying she was not in the Senate to vote for it and has criticized it since she entered the Senate. When asked about the fact that NAFTA was enacted when her husband was in office, she said it was negotiated by the first President Bush.

The Clinton campaign also held a conference call to criticize the Obama mailers with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Clinton supporter, and Wolfson.

"Quite frankly Sen. Obama is sending out information in the mail in Ohio that is apparently quite false in some of its claims regarding Sen. Clinton and NAFTA," Strickland said.

Wolfson followed up with some past pro-NAFTA statements made by Obama, one apparently in Illinois to a group of farmers. Wolfson said there is a "pattern" of Obama saying different things to different groups.

Clinton also began a town hall meeting here last night by acknowledging the Dallas police officer who died after an accident while driving in her motorcade this morning. She then tied the plight of the officer’s family to that of other families struggling in America today.

Keywords: Hillary Clinton Barack Obama mailers NAFTA blatantly false Ohio Texas primary caucus pledged delegates superdelegates