Clinton says she'll abide by pledge
Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:14 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a 20-minute press conference Tuesday morning, Hillary Clinton again called on President Bush to do something to help the economy immediately and said she plans to abide by the DNC pledge not to campaign in Florida, despite a national Obama cable ad buy, which happens to run in some Florida markets and her campaign took issue with yesterday.
In response to a series of questions about her husband's role in her campaign, the senator said his strong advocacy for her was to be expected and that the party would unite behind whomever is the nominee.
Clinton said Obama had decided to change his strategy after losses in New Hampshire and Nevada and he had come to the Myrtle Beach debate looking for a fight.
On Bill Clinton, she said, "I think on both sides, our surrogates are obviously out there advocating for each of us. But this is between us. This is who's on the ballot. This is who's presenting our case to the public."
The senator said this race was about the candidates as individuals and about drawing contrasts among the candidates on the issues:
"I just think that there's a lot of commentary about this that is really missing the point. You know, we are presenting ourselves as individuals, not as categories, not as fulfilling certain kinds of expectations. We are individuals and we come with our life histories, our experiences and I think that is exciting and that doesn't mean that we're going to step back and not criticize each other."
On campaigning outside South Carolina this week and whether it means she's giving up on the state, Clinton said, "For those of you who covered me in Nevada, you know that we were always present in Nevada. Either I was there (sic) my husband was there, my daughter was there. All of us were there. That's exactly what we're doing in South Carolina. I have a couple of obligations that I have to meet today and tomorrow, but my husband and my daughter are in South Carolina and we are waging a very vigorous campaign in South Carolina. We are obviously on the ground pushing hard. We have advertising running and I will be spending, you know, the last part of the week there."
On campaigning in Florida after Obama's decision to run ads on cable there, in what the Clinton campaign says is a violation of the DNC four-state pledge: "You'll have to ask them (the Obama campaign) what they are doing in Florida. I intend to abide by the pledge and follow the pledge and that's what we are, you know, planning to do."
