"Obama hits (not by name) Clinton for "we are safer" post-9-11 debate declaration. Not so."

Lynn Sweet (Chicago Sun Times):

MANCHESTER, N.H.---Safe? Safer? Or not safe in this 9-11 world. A sharp disagreement among the presidential front-runners emerged the day after the second Democratic debate.

Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama’s team e-mailed around a memo on Tuesday taking issue with a startling remark chief rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made in Monday’s debate. At the debate, Obama took on former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) over waiting plus four years to renounce his Iraq war vote.

Obama did not engage Clinton directly. That changed on Tuesday.

In this post-9-11 climate, Clinton said in Monday’s debate “ And I believe we are safer than we were. We are not yet safe enough.”

Obama did not personally challenge Clinton’s statement then. But the unsigned memo from the Obama communications team—not mentioning Clinton by name—said “ Senator Obama believes and asserted in the debate that America is less safe since 9/11 largely because the war in Iraq has fueled terrorism around the world.”

The memo concludes by citing studies by the U.S. State Department and the Council on Global Terrorism that “confirm that the war in Iraq has accelerated the spread of terrorism and increased the threat of attacks.

Click here for Obama memo….