A Social Security swing
IOWA | Obama takes on Clinton's 'hedge and dodge and spin'
DES MOINES -- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama used the topic of Social Security on Saturday to take a few jabs at his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, says Clinton has been ducking the issue of how to ensure Social Security remains solvent for future generations.
He charges that Clinton is following the "conventional wisdom in Washington," which means that when it comes to dicey topics such as Social Security, "you should hedge and dodge and spin, but at all costs, don't answer."
Obama was introduced to the audience at a senior center here by Tod Bowman, a high school teacher from Maquoketa, who says he decided to endorse Obama after Clinton wouldn't directly answer his questions about Social Security at a recent forum. Clinton spoke with Bowman after the forum, but Bowman was still unsatisfied with her answer.
"I think it's important we have a president who is willing to level with us," Bowman said.
Obama argued that Social Security's problems are solvable by raising the amount taken out for Social Security from the paychecks of those who earn high incomes. He used the example of investor extraordinaire Warren Buffett, who pays Social Security on the first $98,000 of his income but nothing on the next $46 million he earns.
Obama, criticizing Clinton, said a candidate for president "should tell us where they stand" on issues as important to the welfare of the country as Social Security.
In the last week, both Obama and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, also running for the Democratic nomination, have been on the Hillary attack, taking her to task for her vote labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. (Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois voted for it, too. Obama was absent when the vote was taken.)
Edwards and Obama say the vote labeling the Guard as a terrorist group could be the first step in allowing President Bush to declare war on Iran.
The two also have criticized her for taking money from lobbyists and special interest groups. E-mails to supporters and the press have been flying.
In one e-mail, the Clinton campaign noted: "Stagnant in the polls and struggling to revive his once-buoyant campaign, Senator Obama has abandoned the politics of hope."