Both sides battling for the Democratic presidential nomination have been throwing mud for several weeks now. But on Thursday, the Clinton campaign used its daily conference call to remind reporters that it has been a two-way battle, and that the Obama campaign has not been tactically pure.

In a tense conference call Thursday afternoon, Clinton campaign aides complained bitterly that the Obama campaign was trying to play it both ways — promising a clean campaign, but then engaging in personal attacks anyway.

“That is hardly in keeping with the politics of hope that have fueled Senator Obama’s ascent throughout this campaign,” said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton.



After accusing the Obama campaign of engaging in “character assassination,” Mr. Singer listed a few specific complaints:

Samantha Power, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, called Mrs. Clinton a “monster.” (She has since resigned.)

Merrill A. McPeak, a retired Air Force general who is supporting Mr. Obama, compared Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy, after Mr. Clinton seemed to question Mr. Obama’s patriotism.

Mr. Obama himself suggested that Mr. Clinton was encouraging political attacks to go too far. “There’s a line that can be crossed where you stop focusing on the American people’s business and it just becomes about sport,” Mr. Obama said, speaking to reporters on his campaign plane this week.

(For the record, Mr. Obama made those comments while largely agreeing with Mr. Clinton’s observation that politics is a contact sport.)

But there was another reason for the Clinton conference call: Clinton aides complained that Mr. Obama was copying his policy positions from Mrs. Clinton.

Neera Tanden, Mrs. Clinton’s policy director, said that one week ago, Mrs. Clinton proposed a $30 billion stimulus plan to help fight foreclosures. Thursday morning, Ms. Tanden said, Mr. Obama came out with “virtually the same proposal.”

“If Senator Obama has to copy policy ideas when he’s a candidate on the campaign trail, how is he going to solve people’s problems if he’s president?” she said. “When it comes to fixing the economy, we need leadership, not followership.”

Asked about the comments, Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, wrote in an email message, “The American people are tired of the sniping from the Clinton campaign -– both real and imagined.”