Did Obama really say he was going to start attacking Hillary?

Prior to last week's Democratic debate, all the talk was about how Barack Obama had promised (in a New York Times interview) to beef up his attacks on Hillary Clinton. A Talk of the Town this week by one of my favorite authors, Hendrik Hertzberg, suggests that perhaps it was the Times reporter, and not Obama himself, that claimed Obama would step up attacks. Hertzberg bases this conclusion on a transcript of the actual interview.

But those were the reporters’ words, not Obama’s. His words, which could be found in an excerpted transcript on the Times Web site, were calmer. “I think she is an admirable person, I think she’s a capable senator, I think there’s overlap between some of her ideas and mine,” he said. “The case I’m making is not that she’s a terrible person or would be a terrible President. The case I’m making is that I would be better at those things that the country needs right now.”

And it was really John Edwards who led the attacks on Clinton last Tuesday. And he didn't stop there. His campaign staff is taking advantage of YouTube for some cheap advertising, putting ads that attack Clinton on the Internet instead of paying to put them on television. And the best part is that the ads see TV time anyway when they are played on political talks shows.

Check out this ad posted by "ohio4edwards."