Clinton: Quit whining
Posted: Friday, April 18, 2008 4:14 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
RADNOR, Pa. -- Hillary Clinton reprised a line that was a favorite back in the Iowa days to question rival Obama's ability to withstand the pressures of being president.
"Did some of you see that debate the other night?" Clinton asked a packed crowd packed sitting under whirring fans in a warm, high school gym. "Well, I know that some of my opponent's supporters and my opponent are…complaining about hard questions. Well, having been in the White House for eight years and seeing what happens in terms of the pressures and the stresses on a president; that was nothing."
The audience applauded and cheered.
"I'm with Harry Truman on this: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," she continued. "Just speaking for myself, I am very comfortable in the kitchen."
Clinton and her husband have been hitting Obama for the past two days after the Illinois senator said the Wednesday night debate had not focused enough on the issues people care about and that it had been a preview of the kind of Republican attacks that would be seen in the general election.
The New York senator's comments at Radnor Senior High School were a snappier version of statements she made earlier this morning during a television interview.
Yesterday, Bill Clinton said he "didn't hear her whining" when she was attacked in the past and said this race was "a contact sport".
But the Clinton camp has also been known to complain about treatment in past debates that they saw as overly harsh.
NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan reports that Obama took issue with the assertion that his comment about "gotcha questions" at Wednesday's debate was "complaining."
Asked about it on the tarmac as he was about to get into his campaign SUV, Obama grinned and shook his head.
"Who's complaining?" he asked in return. "Who's been complaining about the press for the last six months?"
Here's part of that Clinton interview this morning with local FOX 29:
CLINTON: We were both asked some pretty tough questions and that’s part of what happens in a debate and in a campaign. And I know he spent all day yesterday complaining about the hard questions he was asked. Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House. In fact, when the going gets tough, you just can’t walk away because we’re going to have some very tough decisions that we have to make. I think we need a president who can take whatever comes your way. You have to stand strong; you have to fight for the American people – because it will not be easy to stand up against the special interests.
Q: So you were fine with the debate, did you see any problem with it?
CLINTON: Well, can I say that I’ve been through, what 23 of these debates? And as I recall, I was asked some pretty tough questions in nearly every one of them. That goes with the territory, having been inside the White House, I know the pressures inside the White House, I know how hard it is every single day. When the going gets tough you can’t run away. And it’s going to be tough going to deal with these hard problems; getting out of Iraq in the right way, turning the economy around, getting universal health care, ending our dependence on foreign oil. The special interests are going to be a lot tougher than 90 minutes of questions from two journalists and we need a president who is going to be up there fighting everyday for the American people and not complain about how much pressure there is, and how hard the questions are.
