Two major Republican presidential candidates are taking fresh shots at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, after her performance at a debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia left her vulnerable.
In a new recording posted on Republican contender Fred Thompson’s Web site Friday, the former Tennessee senator can be heard criticizing Clinton at a campaign stop in Nevada for her support of a New York state plan to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses. Clinton clarified her support for the program after initially giving a confusing position Tuesday.
"There are two things I never thought I'd see. Joe Torre becoming the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Hillary Clinton getting pinned down and actually having to answer a controversial question," Thompson says.
He called Clinton's response the "wrong answer for America."
Meanwhile, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney has a new television ad out in early-voting New Hampshire that claims Clinton is too inexperienced to be president.
“Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city," Romney says in the ad. "She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be President as an internship just doesn't make any sense."
Romney's spot added to the criticism of Clinton, who was widely assailed by her Democratic rivals during and after Tuesday night's debate in Philadelphia. Clinton has accused her opponents of ganging up on her, and plans to file her candidacy papers in New Hampshire Friday.
Romney, by weighing in from the GOP side, borrowed a page from fellow Republican Rudy Giuliani, who for months has tried to bypass his primary rivals and move directly to the November 2008 contest.
Romney and Democratic candidate Barack Obama have been running ads statewide in New Hampshire and in the expensive Boston-media market. Romney is spending nearly $300,000 a week on ads aimed at New Hampshire voters and Obama is spending more than $300,000 a week for his spots. Romney has spent about $3.5 million in New Hampshire primary ads so far and Obama has spent more than $1.5 million, according to data compiled by other campaigns.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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