Obama's camp: Hillary's Ireland claims are blarney
WOOING IRISH | He says she exaggerates her role in peace process
Marching in Scranton and Pittsburgh, Pa.'s, St. Patrick's Day parade Saturday seemed a perfect time for White House hopeful Hillary Clinton to release her Northern Ireland position paper. Irish Catholics will be a sizable part of the electorate in Pennsylvania's April 22 Democratic presidential primary.
As a regular part of her stump speech, Clinton cites what she says is her role in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland as evidence of the foreign policy experience she says she has and Barack Obama doesn't. In her position paper Saturday, she pledged to make nurturing Northern Ireland's peace process an important part of American foreign policy.
(AP)
Obama's campaign reacted to Clinton's Northern Ireland position paper by sending out an e-mail accusing Clinton of exaggerating her role in her husband's efforts to encourage Northern Ireland's peace process.
"In President [Bill] Clinton's own book about his work in Northern Ireland, he did not talk about any particular contribution by Hillary Clinton," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Saturday.
Clinton no longer offers as part of her stump speech a story she gave in New Hampshire about bringing together women from opposite sides of Northern Ireland's Protestant-Catholic divide for a meeting at which they spoke to each other for the first time, after the Boston Globe raised questions about the story.
But she reminds voters that she has visited Northern Ireland seven times, accompanying her husband on all of his trips and going sometimes by herself. Her position paper offers quotes from some of the most highly regarded participants in the peace process, including moderate Catholic leader John Hume, who said: "She made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward."
Bill Clinton's granting of a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, over Britain's objection, helped him persuade IRA members to embrace the peace process, and Adams credits Hillary Clinton with playing "an important role" in the peace process.
Bill Clinton tells rallies around the country that Northern Ireland leaders visiting the United States ask to see his wife to thank her for her help.
The Obama campaign distributed a statement from former State Department official Greg Craig calling Hillary Clinton's claim of helping the peace process "a gross overstatement of the facts."
Clinton last week agreed to appear before the Irish American Presidential Forum. Plouffe said Saturday he would check to see if Obama would likewise accept the invitation.
Obama has the backing of Sen. Ted Kennedy, who has also been active in the peace process.
"If Sen. Obama is elected president, continuing the progress that had been made in that area of the world is going to be critical," Plouffe said.