Hillary's Comic Debut

Clinton Turns Tables, Calls Obama the "Establishment" Candidate

From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:

ORONO, MAINE -- For months, Hillary Clinton has battled the image that she is the "status quo" candidate - an image that has been strongly pushed by Barack Obama and former rival John Edwards.

But today, Clinton is trying to turn the tables on Obama saying that he has "increasingly run an establishment race and he has increasingly relied on big endorsements and celebrities to sort of attach himself to to get the kind of validation that comes from that sort of endorsement."

At a news conference at the University of Maine, Clinton added that Obama's positions have shifted with outside pressures.

"And he has increasingly, in my view, really tailored his positions so that they are more establishment-oriented like giving up on universal health care, so I think there is an argument to be made there. If we want a Democrat to be the Democratic standard bearer, who stands for the positive, progressive agenda of the Democratic party as opposed to more of the same or a little less than more of the same, then I think I’m the best candidate to carry that message."

In the past few days Clinton has sharpened her rhetoric toward Obama. Last night at a rally in Spokane, Washington, Clinton likened Obama to President Bush.

And the laughs keep coming........