Clinton defends Obama while attacking GOP ticket

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday defended Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) from Republican charges of sexism and suggested the GOP ticket was trying to distract voters from real issues.

{mosads}Clinton refrained from directly attacking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee, during a news conference scheduled to discuss disparity in pay between men and women. But by highlighting an issue that is important to the millions of white women who supported her in the Democratic primary, Clinton drew a bright line between the two campaigns and showed Palin does not share her views.

“The campaign of Sen. McCain seems to want to divert attention away from the real challenges facing middle-class families in America today,” she said.

“I see nothing from the McCain-Palin ticket that really suggests, even, that they understand the depth of economic distress in this country, the tragedy of the uninsured who cannot get healthcare, the problems that we face, from home foreclosures to dependence on foreign oil, and so much else."

McCain’s selection of Palin has shaken up the campaign in a move that seems aimed directly at luring Clinton supporters. Clinton has urged her supporters to back Obama and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), noting that Palin would likely get behind McCain’s views on important issues they value.

“John McCain is the top of the ticket and we know where he stands on equal pay — he’s against it,” Clinton said. “It’s the usual practice that whoever is the vice presidential nominee adopts the position of the presidential nominee, and on issue after issue after issue, from the economy to healthcare to energy to every kind of problem facing working families today, there’s only one choice and that’s Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Clinton also dismissed any criticism of Obama’s comment this week comparing Palin’s statements about her record as “putting lipstick on a pig,” saying Obama “has made it abundantly clear that it was in no way meant as an affront. I believe him.”

Clinton appeared with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) at a press conference to unveil a report the two senators requested from the Government Accountability Office on the Bush administration’s enforcement against pay inequities for women. The GAO report investigated the administration’s record for receiving and responding to complaints through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The report found complaints are being under-monitored by the Labor Department.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds declined to comment on Clinton's remarks, instead issuing this statement: “John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin have spent the week discussing their respective records of shaking up government and their shared agenda to make the change and reforms in Washington that Americans need right now.”