After Bill Shaheen's deliberate bringing up of Obama's youthful drug use, and his subsequent resignation from the Clinton campaign, there have been a series of reverberations.
The "official" response came when Hillary Clinton personally apologised to Obama at National airport in Washington before they flew to Iowa for yesterday's debate. ABC News then reports:
"I take the Clinton campaign's word that they didn't know what this guy was doing and I understand all that, but the one thing I will say is, I told my staff that if I catch you guys doing any kind of stuff like this, you're fired. Period," [Obama said].
But there was more fun and games last night, when Clinton's chief strategist Mark Penn appeared on Hardball alongside his counterpart in John Edwards' campaign, Joe Trippi. Todd Beaton at MyDD picks up the thread:
[Chris] Matthews then asked if Penn considered the Clinton campaign's use of Obama's past indiscretions and a reference to what he said in kindergarten as the basis for attacks on Obama out of line. This is where Penn actually escalated the attack first advanced by Shaheen as opposed to quashing it.
Mark Penn: Well, I think we've made clear that the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising and I think that's been made clear...
This is when Joe Trippi jumped in and called Penn out.
Joe Trippi: I think he just did it again. He just did it again. Unbelievable. This guy's been filibustering on this, he just said 'cocaine' again.
Mark Penn: I think you're saying 'cocaine.' I think you're saying it.
Later, David Axelrod, Obama's campaign manager, responded:
This isn't the situation where two campaigns are fighting, this is the sound of one hand clapping and that hand is the Clinton campaign.
