From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
At a press conference in Waterloo, Iowa, today, Obama said that
Americans are tired of "slash and burn" politics and are not interested
in "politics as a blood sport" in reference to recent attacks by the Clinton campaign on his past drug use and his lack of experience.

Late yesterday, President Bill Clinton on PBS's Charlie Rose
compared Obama to a "gifted television commentator," saying he had only
one year of national service experience before running for office.
Earlier in the day at a press conference, Clinton had said there were
"no surprises" with her campaign. Thursday afternoon, Bill Shaheen,
co-chair of Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire resigned for
questioning about Obama's past drug use, saying that Republicans would
go as far as to ask if Obama had sold drugs.

Obama dismissed the attacks with a laugh, saying, "Well, look I mean
when I was 20 points down they all thought I was a wonderful guy.
Obviously things have changed here in Iowa and the rest of the country,
and that's the kind of politics we've become accustomed to."

He went on to say, "But here's the important thing I understand that there's a history of politics being all about slash and burn and taking folks down and what I recall the Clintons themselves calling the politics of personal destruction, which they decried. And my suspicion is that that's just not where the country is at. They are not interested in politics as a blood sport."

On Charlie Rose, the former president said Obama had started running for office after just one year in the Senate and that voters would be taking a "risk" if they were to vote for him. "It's unpredictable isn't?" Clinton responded after Charlie Rose asked if a vote for Obama would be like "rolling the dice."

When asked to respond to President Clinton's comments on his experience, Obama quoted President Clinton himself. "Well, look this is an argument they have been making during the duration of this campaign. I guess, here is a quote [reads], 'the same old experience is irreverent, you can have right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience and mine is rooted in the real lives of real people, and it will bring real results if we have the courage to change.' And that was Bill Clinton in 1992."

Will drug use be an issue?
Asked about his past drug use and if it could be an issue, he said, "I do think that the average American thinks that what somebody does when they were a teenager 30 years ago is probably not relevant to how they are going to be performing as the president of the United States. And I think people have pretty good judgment about that."

The neighboring state advantage?
When asked about the Clinton's argument that Obama had an advantage in Iowa because he was from neighboring Illinois, Obama joked that to suggest he was a "callow youth with some kind of structural advantage" did not take into the consideration the formidable ground operation his campaign had put together or the status the Clintons already had in the state.

"It doesn't strike me as a real plausible argument," Obama said, adding that part of his success in Iowa could be because he shared a "Midwestern sensibility" and understood the issues of concern to Iowans because they were ones he had worked on before.

"We have done a terrific job organizing on the ground. We put in a lot of time here, we've taken it very seriously," Obama said.

Obama's magic carpet ride?
Clinton is going on a helicopter tour of Iowa and Obama was asked how he would top the Hill-o-copter. He said, "Magic carpets!"