Clinton, Obama Back Down from Attack Ads, Try to Make Nice

By Anastacia Mott Austin

As South Carolina’s Democratic primary looms, the squabbling between top contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seems to have backfired for both, possibly giving third-place candidate Edwards a boost.

Negative campaign ads by both Clinton and Obama have been pulled after voter response indicated the ads would harm both candidates.

The Clinton campaign reacted first, pulling an ad that suggested Obama was a supporter of Reagan-era Republican politics. Obama’s campaign then pulled an equally barbed radio ad which claimed that Clinton will "…say anything and change nothing."

Ouch.

Clinton appeared on CBS’s "The Early Show" this week, saying that her husband Bill Clinton had stepped over the line in his comments about Obama. "He said several times yesterday that maybe he got a little bit carried away," said Clinton to interviewers, referring to her husband’s reference to the Obama campaign as "a fairy tale."

Added Clinton, "So we’re all going to, on both sides I think, you know, try to bring this debate and this campaign back to the issues that are important."

That might seem big of Clinton, but one gets the sense that if the arguing and the negative ads were working for her, she’d have left them running.

But political experts say that there has been concern among top-ranking Democratic party officials that if the negativity continues, it could cause a rift in the party that would have ramifications come election time, something they do not want to see in an election year that many Democrats see as desperately important.

And the Obama camp, which has been riding its wave of "hope and change," can only see negative ramifications if their candidate who claims to be the new voice of America is seen and heard stooping to low political games.

The one person who doesn’t mind if the sniping continues? Candidate John Edwards, who until this point has consistently run a distant third in the polls behind the two frontrunners.

At the most recent Democratic debate this week, Edwards received some of the highest applause of the evening when he scolded the sparring candidates for their bickering.

Edwards has seized the moment, calling himself "the grown-up" candidate, even running a television ad showcasing footage of Clinton and Obama getting snarky with each other during the debate.

Edwards then says, in a voiceover, "This kind of squabbling—how many children is this going to get health care? How many people are going to get an education from this? This is not about us personally. It is about what we are trying to do for this country."

And while Obama still enjoys a solid 13-point lead over the other candidates in South Carolina, polls showed support increasing for Edwards and decreasing slightly for both Clinton and Obama after the acrimonious Monday night debate.

The candidates did not miss this fact and have decided, at least for the moment, to try to play nice.

Said Clinton on "The Early Show," "I think all of us just need to take a deep breath here because we know we’ll have a united Democratic Party once this nomination is determined."