Obama launches "negative" attack on Clinton

With Florida third place getter John Edwards withdrawing from the race
for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama has likened the choice
between him and former first lady Hillary Clinton as being between the
future and the past.



Speaking before a 10,000-strong crowd at the University of Denver,
Obama said that Republicans will sharpen their attacks against Senator
Clinton's role during her husband's Presidency.



"When I am the nominee, the Republicans won't be able to make this election about the past," Obama said.



"That's what the Republicans are going to want to do. They are going to
want us to look backwards, but they won't be able to do that with me,
because you will have already chosen the future."



The junior Illinois Senator thanked the number of Democratic candidates
who have now all but disappeared from the race. However, without
mentioning the New York Senator by name, he said the Democratic party
now needed to elect a unifying candidate.



He said they could win "not by nominating a candidate who will unite
the other party against us, but by choosing one who can unite this
country around a movement for change."



However Mark Penn, strategist for the Clinton campaign described Obama's speech as "negative".



"His words in that speech were a summary of all the negative attacks,
almost a 'greatest hits' of negative attacks he has launched throughout
this campaign," he said.



"They are false. They are personal. They are unwarranted."



The new strategy comes as Obama today received a further boost to his
campaign, with the Rupert Murdoch controlled New York Post newspaper
endorsing him as the Democratic candidate, above that of hometown
Senator Hillary Clinton.



The now former Australian magnate, who presides over the News
Corporation business, owners of the New York Post, had previously
assisted Clinton in her bid to become US President, partly hosting a
fundraiser in her honour.



However the Post said Thursday that it was backing a "fresh start", and
that it was unable to support Clinton because of the previous Bill
Clinton Administration's problems.



"We urge [voters] to choose Obama - an untried candidate, to be sure,
but preferable to the junior senator from New York," the paper said.



Over 20 States will vote next week for the two parties Presidential
candidates, going forward to the official election in November.