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Barack Obama speaks to residents during a campaign stop Saturday in Indianola, Iowa, as he and rival Hillary Clinton squabbled over who has more supporters from Bill Clinton's administration. (AP Photo)

Now that Bill Clinton’s taken an even bigger role in the presidential campaign, the two Democratic frontrunners are sparring over who can lay claim to the support of his administration.

Sen. Barack Obama suggested Friday in Iowa that he has more Clinton-era foreign policy experts backing his candidacy over Sen. Hillary Clinton’s. But in this campaign skirmish, Clinton seems the victor.

Clinton’s campaign provided 85 names, while Obama’s provided 47.

“Obviously we demonstrated that that wasn’t accurate,” Clinton said while visiting a diner in Milford, N.H., Saturday.

Asked why so many people were supporting Obama, she added: “It’s a silly question. We have hundreds of people supporting me, people who were not just in my husband’s administration, but people from all over the country who have expertise, and I’m proud to have them … But this is not a campaign between lists of advisers. This is a campaign between real people, with experience and qualifications to become president on day one.”

Obama’s original comment, made at a campaign stop with just 13 days until Iowa’s presidential caucuses, came in response to a questioner who asked him to compare his foreign policy vision with that of the former first lady.

“In fact, you could argue that there are more foreign policy experts from the Clinton administration supporting me than Sen. Clinton,” Obama said. He added that “should raise some pretty interesting questions.”

“They apparently believe that my vision of foreign policy is better-suited for the 21st century and is not caught up in the politics of fear that we’ve been seeing out of George Bush for the last seven years,” Obama said.

Asked how Obama backs up the claim of greater support, campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the Illinois senator was referring to an article that ran in The New York Times Magazine in November that quoted an anonymous foreign policy expert saying most of the community was backing Obama. 

The stretch comes as Clinton continues to hammer Obama on foreign policy experience — one of her campaign themes.

On Thursday, the New York senator warned an Iowa audience not to support someone who isn’t “up to speed on foreign affairs and military matters.”

“That’s the kind of logic that got us George Bush in the first place,” she said. Advisers said the line was part of her closing argument against Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, with the three in a tight race in Iowa.

The issue of Bill Clinton-era advisers also came up last week during a Democratic debate in Iowa. Obama had a crowd-pleasing moment when he was asked how he expects to provide an administration of change when several of his advisers used to work for the former president.

Hillary Clinton laughed loudly, but Obama turned to her and said: “Well, Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me, as well.”

The audience applauded.

But on Friday, Obama began elaborating. He said he’s been on the Foreign Relations Committee while serving in the Senate the past three years, “so even by the standards of Washington I have dealt more with foreign policy than, let’s say, Bill Clinton had when he became president, or Ronald Reagan, who was a governor at the time. And these same arguments were made about them.”

He said that unlike Hillary Clinton, he opposed the Iraq war from the start; he opposed an amendment to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization; and he thinks presidents should be willing to negotiate with leaders of rogue nations. He said his record “stands up very well against the people who say they’ve got all this experience in Washington.”

“Why is the national security adviser of Bill Clinton, the secretary of the Navy of Bill Clinton, the assistant secretary of state for Bill Clinton, why are all these people endorsing me?” he asked.

Burton provided a list of 47 nonmilitary advisers who served in the Clinton administration and have endorsed Obama — part of a broader list of 73 foreign policy experts the campaign announced Wednesday. Burton said more than 150 foreign policy experts are advising the campaign, but some don’t want to announce it publicly.

Burton compared that with a list of 32 former U.S. ambassadors and diplomats who served in the Clinton administration and signed a letter two weeks ago attesting to Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy credentials.

Singer said that list was not a full accounting and provided the list of more than 80 names, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Gen. Wesley Clark.

“Sen. Obama is attacking Sen. Clinton by making demonstrably false claims about his foreign policy credentials and in so doing raising more questions about his own lack of experience,” Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement.

FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.