Prometheus 6

The truth isn't negative, even if the liar gets hurt.

Obama Camp Sees Fine Line in Hitting Back
By JEFF ZELENY

CASPER, Wyo. — Since opening his presidential bid 14 months ago, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has answered many questions about his candidacy.

Can he turn inspiration into votes? Yes. Can he raise money? Yes. Can his organization compete with the political muscle of one of the best-known families in Democratic politics? Yes.

But after his defeats this week at the hands of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, there is frustration and anger among his supporters, advisers and contributors about the Clinton campaign’s attacks on him — and still-unresolved tension about how far he can go in striking back without sacrificing his claim to be practicing a new brand of politics.

The conflict was given new life on Friday when Samantha Power, a close friend and a senior foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, resigned after referring to Mrs. Clinton, of New York, as “a monster.”

While Ms. Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, apologized for remarks she called “inexcusable,” the incident underscored the hard feelings that have developed over a long primary race that is probably months from ending.

Mr. Obama, who did not publicly acknowledge Ms. Power’s comment when he arrived here Friday on the eve of the Democratic caucuses in Wyoming, privately admonished members of his staff to avoid being drawn into an unnecessary negative back-and-forth with rivals.

Asked about the incident by a reporter at a campaign stop here, he said he had not “been drawn into a knife fight.”

Yet after losing in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas — following days of being pummeled — advisers to Mr. Obama conceded they had to take a sharper tack as the Democratic nominating fight slogs forward in a delegate-by-delegate battle.