He says he can beat Hillary without being disrespectful. And Republican John McCain thinks Senator Clinton feels the same way.

McCain began stepping up his criticism of the front running Democrat this weekend, but promised to keep the debate civil. Speaking Sunday in Rindge, New Hampshire, he outlined their differences on Iraq, Iran and health care.

On Iraq:
“One the one hand, Senator Clinton says we can’t abandon Iraq to al Qaeda and the influence of Iran. On the other, she wants a firm deadline for withdrawal that would do just that.”

On Iran:
“Senator Clinton would start with unconditional negotiations, despite Iran’s clear record of using negotiations to forestall sanctions.”

On health care:
“Senator Clinton will address the lack of health care insurance in this country by proposing another big government mandate.”

McCain insists that he’ll stick to the issues, and won’t stoop to personal attacks. The question is – can you stay respectful, and still win?
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The Bob Novak piece printed in the New York Post Saturday that claimed Hillary Clinton agents have some “scandalous information” about Senator Obama generated a flurry of written statements from both campaigns Saturday.

At a press availability in Marion, Iowa, Sunday, Senator Obama was asked about the piece by reporters.

It’s “slime politics” that needs to be nipped in the bud or else it could end up getting out of control and destroy a candidate as it did to John McCain in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, Obama said.

While Senator Clinton’s campaign insisted Obama fell for a Republican trap to pit Democrats against one another by responding to the conservative commentator’s piece, Obama dismissed the charge as “silly.”

Watch his response:

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Obama’s Campaign Manager David Plouffe sent out an email Tuesday to “Interested Parties.” Basically that means it’s sent to a large group of reporters and it’s usually something juicy.

The email was entitled “Obama Gains Strength at Critical Time,” and was meant to be a look at how the campaign sees their candidate’s chances and/or how the campaign would like the press to interpret Obama’s chances in the early primary and caucus states.

Obama is doing well, the memo stated, because Clinton cannot unify and Senator John Edwards thinks that compromise is a “dirty word.”

In Iowa:

The Clinton camp is lowering expectations despite the fact that Iowa is “make or break for them.” Plouffe continued, “Which is why they will likely start planting signs, instead of questions, in Iowa.”

Of  Edwards – “We see no signs of Edwards growing outside of his core base from 2004.”

In New Hampshire:

Recent polls show that Hillary Clinton’s lead has been cut in half. “Amongst voters who say they know both Obama and Clinton equally well, we actually take a lead outside the margin for error, and in our internal polling as well as public polling, among those following the race closely, Obama and Clinton are in a dead heat.”

In Nevada:

What happens in Nevada…..(no, guess again) will be influenced by what happens in Iowa and New Hampshire. “Therefore, what the turnout is and the pace of decision making is not fully known.”

In South Carolina:

Obama has not run a single ad in the state, the campaign noted, and yet he is still doing better than John Edwards, who won the primary in 2004. “We also believe that Edwards’ support in South Carolina, if he is no longer in the race or is a weakened candidate, is much more inclined to be supportive of Obama.”

The Eleven February 5th States:

“As best we can tell, Clinton only has a meaningful presence in California and New Jersey,” the memo read. “Edwards has no formal presence in the February 5th states.”

Here is Senator Obama himself, talking strategy at a Monday town hall forum in New Hampshire.

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Plymouth, NH-

While campaigning at Plymouth State University, John Edwards flipped Hillary Clinton’s new campaign slogan ” Turn up the Heat”( first unveiled by HRC during her speech at “JJ” dinner in Des Moines) on the Democratic frontrunner, using the new words against her.

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Edwards also criticized Clinton over the controversy surrounding Plant-Gate, or the revelation that the New York senator’s campaign had planted pre-determined questions in the audience during campaign events.Edwards responded that he was not satisfied with her explanation over the issue, and compared the tactics to to those of President Bush. Clinton, as part of her response to the controversy, had indicated that she knew nothing about the planted questions. ” News to me, ” was her response to reporters recently, and opponents challenging her on the topic could look at her record, she said.

Edwards on Plant-gate:

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Edwards continues campaigning in the Granite state Tuesday, and then heads back to Iowa.

Reporters Notebook: The Roar From Iowa

Saturday , November 10, 2007

Per Major Garrett

DES MOINES —

A record crowd — 9,000 paid dinner guests and twice that many revved up Iowa Democrats — packed the Veterans Memorial Auditorium here for the largest Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa history.
For any Republican seeking the presidency and hoping to keep Iowa in the GOP column (President Bush won here by less than 11,000 votes in ‘04), the scene could only provoke pangs of panic bordering on political paralysis.

As the genteel party regulars sat at circular, white linen-covered tables, a raucous crowd of rank-and-file Democrats thundered in the horseshoe-shaped balcony seats up above.

The dinner started nearly 40 minutes late, but the balcony partisans passed it with rhythmic chants and coordinated placard movements and thunderstick pounding reminiscent of a European soccer game or national championship college football game.

Huge placards and hand-painted signs for all the candidates festooned the balcony railings and Barack Obama and John Edwards set off their sections with illuminated signs tucked just beneath the rafters in the nose-bleed seats. The Obama signs were in blue and red miniature lights spelling out Obama in block letters. The single Edwards sign was made up of seven huge blue placards with a white initial spelling out E-D-W-A-R-D-S and each bottom lit with a single portable light.

Hillary Clinton’s sections pounded through the night with bright yellow thundersticks that reverberated throughout the hall.

Movie comparisons sprang to mind: think of the crowd scenes from Hoosiers or High School Musical.

(more…)

Others might have been slaughtered. 6 men played pig pile on the frontrunning female. In last nights debate in Philly, Edwards aim was truest and the caliber was best. Obama promised to turn it on but he was outdone by Edwards. Dodd made muscular case against her on electability. Kucinich has seen a UFO!

Her one glaring error came at the tail end of the two hour debate.

She seemed to signal support for letting illegal aliens get drivers licenses in NY. But then she backed off which prompted her rivals to blast her for avoiding positions. They think her weak spot is candor. They like “calculating, triangulating, opportunistic, disingenuous,” and about thirty euphemisms for LYING. Tonight Obama told her to her face she does not tell the truth!

Republicans will beat her to a pulp in the general election for supporting drivers licenses for illegal aliens. But democrats slammed her for obfuscating. They hit her on SS for not taking a position either. She was accused of being party to Washington corruption and she was accused of being a phony.. They slammed her for voting to designate the Iranian revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, and the hits kept coming.

It was a rough night for her, but be clear: her worst moment was prompted not by her rivals but a moderator question. All but Dodd actually support letting illegals have drivers licenses. She did not make any huge mistakes. She dodged questions and attacks. Does anybody really think Democratic primary voters don’t already know who Hillary Clinton is???? She and her husband have been dodging questions and attacks for decades. NOTHING NEW HERE PEOPLE.

The question is can 6 men convince democrats that just being a Clinton is reason enough to abandon her. Thus far despite tens of millions of dollars and 10 months of non stop campaigning against her..she has a growing lead, organization and war chest. Behind the scenes rival campaigns are appalled at how unsuccessful they have been as a collective to make any attacks stick. Tonight all the campaigns got the memo: nail her credibility and character. It will be hard to keep a unified attack going…they don’t all share a debate stage every night. Truth is if you match them up, no one candidate did better than Hillary. No one candidate beat her. It was the group that on a few occasions got the best of her. But she is still standing. 10 weeks more till the first votes. She’s gonna face much worse before the democratic nomination race is over. Then whoever the nominee is will face the GOP buzz saw. And with this democratic field republicans are salivating. The RNC is out every day or so with an attack on one or all of them…just beginning to stretch those general election muscles.

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On the day of the Democractic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Hillary raises the stakes on the campaign trail by posting on her own web site news articles about the attacks against her by her rivals….

This is sure to increase the fireworks during the debate tonight.

In martial arts one uses an attackers charge against them.  The art of war by Hillary Clinton.

Check out www.hillaryhub.com

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There’s campaigning in Iowa! Republicans may be ceding the win here to Mitt Romney, but Iowa is ground zero for the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.

Keep checking our slide shows. We’ll show the candidates and the media in their natural habitat. If you have GREAT campaign pic of your own please email them!!