HILLARY ATTACKS

'Tis NOT the season to be jolly, if you're running for president.

Barack Obama is painting Hillary Clinton as the dragon lady on a new website, Hillary Attacks.

DES MOINES -- Barack Obama launched a new "Hillary attacks" website Monday even as Hillary Rodham Clinton was telling voters in Clear Lake that he had ducked votes on guns and abortion as an Illinois state legislator.
The sharp exchanges between the two Democrats, a month before the state's leadoff presidential caucuses Jan. 3, reflect ping-ponging polls in a race too close to call.

Clinton's rhetoric in Clear Lake was her most pointed yet. "The Chicago Tribune said the 'present' votes were the equivalent of taking a pass. Well, instead of looking for political cover, and taking a pass, we need a president who will take a stand," she said, according to The Des Moines Register.

"Barack Obama doesn't need lectures in political courage from someone who followed George Bush to war in Iraq, gave him the benefit of the doubt on Iran … and opposed ethanol until she decided to run for president," spokesman Bill Burton shot back.

Obama's only public event Monday was a small roundtable discussion on credit problems at which he proposed a consumer bill of rights. Asked afterward about the escalating rhetoric, he refused to comment on Clinton's claim Monday that this candidacy promises "false hope."

"It's the silly season," Obama said. "I understand she's been quoting my kindergarten teacher in Indonesia."

Clinton's campaign sent an e-mail Sunday harking back to Obama's kindergarten and third-grade dreams of being president. The e-mail came after Obama said that, unlike some people, he hadn't been planning to run for president his whole life. "Sen. Obama rewrites history," read Clinton's headline.

"Panicked by poll numbers," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said of the Clinton camp in an e-mail Monday to supporters.

Two recent polls, including a Nov. 25-28 Des Moines Register poll released over the weekend, showed Obama ahead of Clinton for the first time, although within the margin of error. Two polls released Monday by Iowa State University and AP-Pew Research Center, both done earlier in the month and with larger error margins than the Register poll, also were statistical ties but had Clinton ahead.

Clinton's campaign also cited post-grade-school evidence of Obama's interest in higher office.

That didn't stop John Edwards, who ranks third in Iowa polls, from having some fun with Obama's alleged third-grade ambitions. "I think that does present a serious character question," he said teasingly in Waterloo. "I want to confess to all of you, in third grade, I wanted to be two things. I wanted to be a cowboy and I wanted to be Superman."

His verdict: "Boy, you can tell you're getting close to the caucus."

Clinton had said Sunday that she would draw more contrasts with her rivals after "months" of absorbing their attacks. "Now the fun part starts," she said in Cedar Rapids.

Obama's site is keeping track of the Hillary campaign attack strategy.

Days since Senator Clinton promised she was not interested in attacking Democrats: 24
Days that Senator Clinton has spent attacking Democrats since making that promise: 20

Not all criticism can be viewed as an attack, an under-handed assault, a low blow.

But the Clintons did perfect the politics of personal destruction. Bill Clinton's two terms as president were marked by an endless series of low blows.

I find it somewhat annoying when candidates whine about being attacked. They come off as weak.

It really bugs me when the whiny victim is also a victimizer.

If these candidates can't handle criticism from fellow Americans, especially members of their own party, I have reservations about their ability to stare down hostile foreign leaders. If they fall to pieces over an attack ad, they don't have the spine to be commander-in-chief.

On the flip side, a candidate unwilling to answer the criticism and fight back can also appear weak.

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

The reality is politics is a tough, ugly business. If you can't handle attacks, don't run for president.