Hillary Clinton's won two primaries in a row, in part, because of the verbal grenades that hubby Bill, the very popular ex-president, is lobbing at Obama on the campaign trail.
And that is reportedly prompting two of the country's most prominent Democrats, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and Chicago Congressman Rahm Emanuel, to admonish Bill in heated phone calls to back off and act like a former president, not an attack dog.
Obama's saying the same thing a bit more respectfully.
"Former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that i think is troubling," he said.
Obama, on "Good Morning America" Monday, accused former president Clinton of distorting Obama's record as he campaigned for his wife. Obama says partisan politics are fine but the ex-president's crossing the line and it's got to stop.
"This is becoming a habit, and we have to directly confront Bill Clinton when he is making statements that are not accurate," said Obama.
"We move on to South Carolina, which is challenging for her. Half of the voters are African American and many are gratified to have intelligent, compelling candidates," said Bill Clinton.
The Bill and Barack show is overshadowing a day of appearances and speeches by the Democratic candidates at Martin Luther King Day events in South Carolina in advance of Saturday's must-win primary for Obama in the palmetto state after two losses in a row to Hillary Clinton.
Mike Huckabee and the other Republican candidates were boogeying down to Florida from South Carolina where John McCain made it two in a row Saturday, putting a lot of pressure on Rudy Giuliani, who virtually ignored the early contests to focus on Florida and the big states on Super Tuesday, February 5.
"We decided some time back this is the place where we should put our most emphasis," said Giuliani.
But the latest polling in Florida and in his home state of New York is bad news for Giuliani. He is trailing Mitt Romney in both states.
