As Clinton’s machine kicks in, Obama team dispatches "Truth Squad"

Sen. Hillary Clinton backer Brian HughesPre-Iowa, they thought it was going to be a cakewalk, but supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton insist that initial jolt of dread between Iowa and New Hampshire has turned into excitement, while the supporters of Sen. Barack Obama say they are excited - and on guard for truth-twisting.

Obama’s victory in South Carolina last night - his second in the process so far - made the Clinton machine in New Jersey change gears again as they get ready to try to roll over Obama’s grassroots operations on Feb. 5.

"Obviously, we got a late start because people were taking some things for granted," said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who in the lead-up to Obama’s win gathered about 25 people at the Ewing Township Library on Saturday to help prepare them for phone-banking duties on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

Hughes was at the opening of Clinton’s central headquarters in Trenton on Iowa Primary night.

"This is good for the party, this dialogue in which we can talk about the pluses and minuses of all of our candidates," Hughes said of New Jersey's coming primary fight in which 127 delegates are at stake, and where Clinton leads Obama by double digits in polls released last week.

But in a conference call today, Obama surrogates said all the intra-party hoopla is fine - as long as the other side gets its facts straight when referencing the record of their candidate. To that end the Obama campaign today officially established a "truth squad," composed of Obama supporters U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and Edison Mayor Jun Choi.

"Last night’s victory was a resounding repudiation of the old school politics of division, which voters found unacceptable," said Rothman, echoing Obama’s South Carolina victory speech from last night. "If any lies are spread about Obama we will be there to speak about it."

Greenstein said the Clinton campaign distorted Obama’s record on numerous occasions in South Carolina.

"He’s got a 100% pro choice rating," said the Assemblywoman. "There were phone calls to voters that attacked him on his pro-choice voting record, and NARAL called on Clinton to stop the ads. The Clinton campaign also suggested his healthcare plan wouldn’t cover as many people as their plan, and Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under Clinton, countered that Obama’s healthcare plan would in fact ensure more people than Hillary’s healthcare plan."

"Americans are sick of negative attacks," said Choi, who referenced what he said were false charges in Clinton's South Carolina mail pieces that Obama supports a trillion tax hike for Social Security. "TheSen. Barack Obama supporter Jun Choiy’re (voters) looking for trust-based politics that brings people together. Seventy percent of voters yesterday indicated in exit polls that they were disappointed with the way Clinton acted."

People weren’t disappointed earlier in the week in North Bergen, where Sen. Robert Menendez - whom the Clinton campaign floats as a possible VP pick - pumped up a crowd of mostly Latino voters at a rally attended by Clinton.

Jairo Polanko of Weehawken told PolitickerNJ.com, "Bill Clinton was the first African-American president in this world. Now we are getting his wife. Why not keep it up?"

Inside the banquet hall of Schuetzen Park, the euphoria for Clinton in a packed space was palpable. "If you’re asking who is not connected through a public job to the machine, I could probably point out to you the people in the crowd that I don’t recognize, and they would be the handful who aren’t," said a Hudson county insider who asked to be unnamed.

Some came from other counties to lend their support to the front-running presidential candidate in New Jersey. Like their Congressman, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, who stood on stage with Clinton, a group of visitors from Passaic County attended the event and came away enthusiastically ready to do battle.

"I am committed to electing Sen. Clinton as the first woman president," said Jasmine Durham of Clifton, who at 18 will be voting in her first presidential election.

"Politics is hard for a woman in politics. I know. I’m a woman in politics," said Barbara Tanis of Paterson, vice chair of the Passaic Democratic Party. "It’s a boy’s game."

Tanis said she believes Clinton is a highly intelligent person who has a better ability than Obama to crystallize difficult issues.

"His time will come, but not yet," said Tanis.

Passaic County Clinton supporters, from left: Mike Stracco, Jasmine Durham, Lauren Murphy, and Barbara Tanis.

But the Obama people maintain that beyond the strict hierarchies of machine politics, others are exhausted by the Clinton team, and what Rothman, Greenstein and Choi say are Sen. Clinton’s inevtiable obfuscations.

"Our candidate is a brilliant, tough uniter," said Rothman, putting special emphasis on the last word to strike a contrast with Clinton, whom polls show to be a polarizing figure. "What he offers is the ability to bring in a lot of new people who have a healthy distrust. People want to look at real candidates and not false differences."

On Saturday night, as Obama was pounding Clinton at the polls in South Carolina, the Moorsetown Democratic Committee conducted a "mock caucus," in the words of Burlington County Democratic Party Chairman Rick Perr.

"Support probably leaned a little toward Obama," said Perr, who personally supports Clinton for president.

"Everybody was just energized," said the county chairman. "The comments that came back were that we’ve never had an event in January where you’d have 100 people turn out for something like this."