Bill Clinton defends his attacks on Obama

Former President Bill Clinton, criticized by some Democrats for his sharp-tongued attacks on his wife’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, defended his actions today.

“When I was running, I didn’t give a rip what anybody said about me,” Clinton said at a campaign stop outside Columbia, S.C. “It’s weird, you know, but if you love somebody and you think that they’d be good, it’s harder.”

Just days before Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked whether she thought the former president crossed a line of decorum in suggesting that Obama had put a “hit job” on him.

“We’re in a very heated campaign and people are coming out and saying all kinds of things,” Hillary Clinton told the Associated Press in an interview late Wednesday that was released today. “I’m out there every day making a positive case for my candidacy. I have a lot of wonderful people, including my husband, who are out there making the case for me.”

South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian, an Obama supporter, has criticized the former president for what he called “reprehensible” tactics, saying the attacks remind him of the kind of negative campaigning used by the late GOP strategist Lee Atwater. Clinton responded by complaining that reporters did not balk when Obama put “a hit job” on him. The former president did not explain what he meant.

“He was thinking about something, you’ll have to ask him what he means,” Sen. Clinton told the Associated Press’ Beth Fouhy. Calling the comparison to Atwater “outrageous,” Sen. Clinton also defended her own attacks on Obama’s words and actions. “Talking about people’s records? Talking about what they do in the campaign?” she asked. “That’s fair game. That’s what we do in America.”

The New York senator planned what her campaign billed as a major economic speech today in Greenville. Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, was also stumping in South Carolina, as was Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who criticized the White House for a slow response to the economic turmoil.

“If we had a grown-up in the White House … 30 days ago we’d have been doing something about this economic downturn,” Edwards said. “We’d already be on the edge of creating new jobs.”

On the Republican side, all five of the remaining Republican candidates – Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul - are preparing for tonight’s MSNBC debate, the last chance to debate before Florida voters take to the polls Tuesday.

Predicting “a spirited discussion,” McCain today sounded like a man thinking beyond Florida, to running against Sen. Clinton in the fall campaign.

Castigating Clinton for wanting “to wave the white flag” in Iraq, McCain called her the likely Democratic nominee and said he has been watching the debates among the Democratic candidates in which she advocated withdrawal from Iraq.

“After all the sacrifice we’ve made in this surge, which everybody knows is succeeding, she wants to surrender and bring the troops home and set a date for withdrawal,” McCain told Fox News. Saying withdrawal would give Al Qaeda an opening to proclaim victory, McCain, a former POW in Vietnam, added: “I have never, never in American history, heard of a leading candidate for president of the United States that wants to surrender to the enemy.”

On a lighter note, McCain, at 71 the oldest candidate running for president, was also asked about actor Sylvester Stallone’s endorsement. “I’m going to Philadelphia and running up the steps,” he said.

johanna.neuman@latimes.com