More Sparring Between Clinton, Obama Campaigns

Early Tuesday afternoon the Clinton campaign held a conference call with reporters to highlight what they called a negative and misleading piece of mail from Barack Obama.

In particular, State Senator Maggie Hassan refers to a quote from Obama that says "everyone has a universal plan for health care, including Senator Clinton, but misleading attacks may be textbook Washington politics, but they're exactly what stops us from ever solving the problem."

"He is criticizing Hillary Clinton for being negative and Washington politics as usual, which is a direct attack on her and her character."

Minutes after the Clinton conference call, the Obama campaign had its own. Steering committee member Dayton Duncan says the Obama mailer was just a defense from an earlier Clinton attack.

"We've come to a sorry state in politics if when you defend yourself, that's called attack politics."

Clinton and Obama are in a statistical tie in recent polls.

For NHPR News, I'm Dan Gorenstein.