Dec 3, 2007 10:34 pm US/Central
Sen. Obama's Sister Visits His Chicago Campaign HQ
Maya Soetoro-Ng Arrives As Battle Between Obama And Clinton Nears Fever Pitch
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Sen. Barack Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, helped campaign for him at the Chicago his Chicago campaign headquarters.
CBS
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Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (File)
AP
A new poll shows Sen. Barack Obama leading the Democratic presidential race in Iowa. But there's still about a month to go before the caucuses, and most everyone agrees it's still a tight race.
A poll by the Des Moines Register now shows Obama with 28 percent of the vote, Sen. Hillary Clinton with 25 percent and John Edwards with 23 percent.
Obama's sister visited the Chicago Obama campaign nerve center Monday evening. As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, some Chicago area residents were in for a surprise when Maya Soetoro-Ng picked up the phone and did some volunteer calling.
Her visit came just as Obama's campaign in Iowa seems to be surging in some polls and as both Obama and Clinton are turning up the rhetoric in the Hawkeye State.
First Obama lobbed an attack aimed at Clinton's ambition.
"I have not been planning to run for president for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for," Obama said.
The Clinton campaign response: he's "rewriting history." They quoted five classmates and friends saying that Obama has been saying since he was in grade school that he was planning to run for the White House.
His sister Monday night said there were family jokes for years that he would run, but that the talk did not become serious until a year ago, when Obama went to Hawaii to ask his family's advice.
"And he was very contemplative and talked with all of us about what will this mean and why should he do it," Soetoro-Ng said. "It was very important for him that the family support such a decision."
She says she thinks she understands why the Clinton attacks are being stepped up.
"I think it makes some sense because he's doing so well in Iowa," Soetoro-Ng said.
On Sunday, Clinton blasted Obama for misleading voters about his health care plan. Asked if she intended to raise questions about his character and integrity she said, "It's beginning to look a lot like that."
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