From FOX News: Hillary Clinton, Obama in Hot Exchange Over Hollywood Heavyweight's Comments.
The war of words between leading 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spread Wednesday night, after the campaigns had earlier exchanged heated words when Clinton suggested Obama return funds to Hollywood bigwig David Geffen, who insulted her in a newspaper article.
"We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom," Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said in a statement that was e-mailed to the news media. ...
Who Wins In The Democratic Feud?
Ed Morrissey
The eruption of hostilities between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns this week potentially creates an opening for another candidate to exploit to match or best the two front-runners. Josh Gerstein makes the case that John Edwards will gain the most traction from a Hillary-Barack feud, relying on a man with unfortunate experience in campaign meltdowns:
As the dust settles from the first showdown between the presidential campaigns of Senators Clinton and Obama, political analysts are wondering who will benefit from protracted wrangling between the two top contenders for the Democratic nomination.
A former senator of North Carolina, John Edwards, is emerging as one potential beneficiary of the spat that broke out over critical comments from a Hollywood supporter of Mr. Obama, David Geffen. ...
I tend to think that Hillary's crankiness will last longer than most analysts think, partly because I believe it to be deliberate. Democrats complained loudly after the 2004 election that John Kerry had lost because he had not hit back at critics such as the Swift Boat veterans. That questionable bit of analysis has blossomed into an axiom among Democrats, who now tend to value combativeness over coherence and policy.
If anyone doubts this, just look at the reaction to Edwards when confronted with Amanda Marcotte's rather blatant anti-Christian writings. Instead of encouraging Edwards to do what most campaigns do when they make a bad hire -- cut the person loose -- the netroots and activists within the party threatened to withhold their support unless Edwards showed he would fight back against the right-wing noise machine. Edwards backed away from firing Marcotte, only to get stung again when she made more anti-Christian comments on her personal blog days later.
For that reason, I don't think Edwards really benefits from the Hillary-Barack feud. The one person who benefits most so far is Barack Obama. ...
