During an appearance yesterday on Meet the Press Senator Hillary Clinton cited media reports to suggest Senator Obama’s campaign has been distorting statements by herself and her husband to give the impression that they were fueled by racial insensitivity. Clinton demanded that these statements be put into context so they could be shown as attacks against Obama’s comparison between himself, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King as well as his record on the Iraq War and not an attack on his race as some have seen them. Clinton again charged that Senator Obama has not maintained a consistent position on the Iraq war and maintained that it will take a record of achievement in creating and moving forward legislation and not just speeches to create societal and governmental change.

Yesterday Senator Obama responded to these charges. On the charge that his campaign was distorting her comments he said, “I am baffled by that statement by the senator.” He also added:

She made an ill advised statement about Dr. King suggesting that Lyndon Johnson had more to do with the Civil Right Acts. I did not make the statement. I haven’t commented on the statement. For them to suggest that we’re injecting race as a consequence of a statement she made that we haven’t commented on is pretty hard to figure out. Maybe you can tell me and explain to me how we distorted her statement.”

Obama’s campaign did circulate a memo outlining Clinton’s statement on MLK & Lyndon Johnson and reactions to her husband calling Obama’s record on Iraq a ‘fairy tale’ as well as comments by Clinton support Andrew Cuomo who used the racially insensitive term “shuck and jive”. It also highlighted other comments by the Clinton’s and their supporters some interjected Obama’s admitted drug use into the campaign.

On Clinton’s charge over his Iraq War position, Obama said Clinton was attempting to rewrite history and maintained he has been against the War since 2002, despite voting for War funding and telling Tim Russert on Meet the Press in 2004 that his position on Iraq was similar to George Bush’s and agreeding with the president on the wars execution.

These tensions escalated on Sunday when BET Founder and Clinton supporter Robert L. Johnson seemingly invoked Obama’s past drug use as well as the film “Guess Whose Coming to Dinner” while discussing Obama at a Clinton rally in South Carolina.

On the idea that Obama’s campaign was distorting the Clinton’s comments Johnson said:

“And to me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book – when they have been involved.”

Johnson also defended Clinton’s comments about King and Johnson saying that though MLK started a “moral crusade” it took legislation to get his work “written into law”. He added ““That is the way the legislative process works in this nation and that takes political leadership.”

The interjection of Obama’s drug use was picked up by the Senators campaign. Johnson claimed that he was not referring to Obama’s drug past but rather Obama’s experience as a community organizer. The Obama campaign was not happy with the explanation and called on Clinton to condemn the comments as she did another supporters comments a few months ago.

Meanwhile Michelle Obama hit the trail saying her husband was ready to take the presidency. Ms. Obama said ““There are a lot of doubters and naysayers out there talking about, ‘I’m not sure America is ready for a black president.’” She also dismissed the suggestion that her husband was a ‘fairy tale’ continuing the idea that President Clinton’s comments were about Obama himself and not his position on the Iraq war.