Obama: Hillary 'looked in her element'
Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008 3:18 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Ben Weltman and Mark Murray
At his rally in Raleigh, NC today, Obama said the following: "So last night Sen. Clinton and I had our 21st debate of the year [pro-Obama boos]. I will tell you it does not get much more fun than these debates. They are, they are inspiring events [laughter]. I mean last night I think we set a new record because it took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people. Took us 45 minutes... 45 minutes before we heard about health care, 45 minutes before we heard about Iraq, 45 minutes before we heard about jobs, 45 minutes before we heard about gas prices."
VIDEO: Obama tells a North Carolina audience that he just had to brush off negative attacks.He went on to say: "I don't blame Washington for this because that is just how Washington is. They like stirring up controversy and they like playing gotcha games, getting us to attack each other. And I have to say, Senator Clinton looked in her element. You know, she was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there. You know, that's al right. That's her right to kind of twist the knife a little bit [smiles, laughs at crowd]."
"That's why she is only airing negative attacks on TV in Pennsylvania... Look, I understand that because that's the textbook Washington game. That's how our politics has been taught to be played. That's the lesson that she learned when the Republicans were doing the same thing to her back in the 1990s. So I understand it and when you are running for the presidency than you've got to expect it and then you've got to kind of [makes a "brush off shoulder" motion]. That's what you got to do. That's what you got to do [brushes off his shoulder again]."
"But, understand this: That is also precisely why I'm running for president, to change that kind of politics."