Axelrod: Clinton campaign has "insidious pattern" on race, other attacks

The Obama campaign made its clearest suggestion yet that the Clinton campaign is deliberately crossing the line on Obama's race and other attacks in a conference call today with reporters.

Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, grouped former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro's suggestion that Obama owes some part of his success to the fact that he's black with other gaffes by Clinton backers Robert Johnson and Bill Shaheen, and with Clinton's "own inexplicable unwillingness" to flatly deny that Obama is a Muslim in a "60 Minutes" interview.

"All this is part of an insidious pattern that needs to be addressed," he said.

Axelrod asked "whether she's trying to send a signal to her supporters that anything goes."

Axelrod called on Clinton to drop Ferraro from her finance committee.

"When you wink and nod at offensive statements you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes," he said.

He also responded to a question about Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, who he described as a friend.

"He has assumed a kind of junkyard dog role in this campaign," he said.