In the latest effort to cut into the lead of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the Democratic presidential race, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) on Tuesday plans to slap a “just words” label on the front-runner.
After her campaign released a memo earlier Tuesday with the “Just Words” slogan in the headline, the former first lady plans to come out swinging at her rival during a speech in Harrisburg, Pa.
{mosads}“I understand Sen. Obama is talking about energy today, right here in Pennsylvania. And that’s great. But talking about problems is easy. Solving problems is hard,” Clinton plans to say, according to excerpts from her speech. “And speeches are no substitute for solutions. Speeches won’t lower gas prices, stop climate change, or lessen our dependence on oil from Saudi Arabia.”
Clinton will add that the “true test comes when it’s time to match rhetoric with results. And unfortunately, we’ve seen that Sen. Obama’s promises and speeches are often just words.”
The former first lady charges Obama with paying only lip service to clean energy.
“In the Senate, he voted for Dick Cheney’s energy bill loaded with new tax breaks for oil companies,” Clinton plans to say. “When he faced a tough choice, his support for a clean-energy future turned out to be just words.”
She will also seek to tie energy policy to a recent Obama campaign snafu regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“It’s like how he talks about fixing NAFTA,” the speech excerpts state. “But his top economic adviser assured the Canadian government that he wouldn’t really follow through. His position? Just words.”
The slogan is expected to get some play from the Clinton campaign, which has long sought to portray Obama as a candidate who is able to deliver great speeches but has no record to match his rhetoric.
Clinton plans to tell Pennsylvania voters Tuesday that the Democratic race comes down to one choice: “Solutions you can rely on — versus words you can’t.”