Senator Barack Obama defended mailers sent out to Ohio voters last week on Hillary Clinton’s NAFTA and health care records, after Hillary Clinton scolded him for distributing them.

At an impromptu media availability in Columbus, Ohio, today, Mr. Obama called the mailers “accurate” and questioned Clinton’s tactics for her animated display this morning, since, he pointed out, the mailers were days if not weeks old. The frontrunner had not seen his rival’s fiery charges (capped off with a, “Shame on you, Barack Obama.”), but did laugh and say, “I hear it’s exciting.”

Here is what Obama said about the mailers and his response to Clinton’s claim that he pulled a page out of the Karl Rove playbook.

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Obama’s media availability was scheduled shortly after a reporter shouted out a question on the issue as the candidate finished up a roundtable forum on healthcare. Walking out of the room, Obama said that the event was not a press conference. While the press filed and grumbled that the last press conference was 5 days before, Senator Obama did a series of interviews, including two with Entertainment Tonight and The Insider.

Moments later, staffers announced there would be an avail after all. Obama first recognized the reporter who regularly covers the candidate, with a smile. “I don’t know if I should be rewarding you for shouting out to me,” he said. “I’m just doing my job,” the reporter responded.

Let the questions begin.

He lived for fifty years in the United States without the ability to speak. Born with a condition known as cleft palate–a birth defect that, in most cases, is easily correctable–James Lowe was without a voice until well into his adult life. A retired coal miner from West Virginia, Lowe had no health insurance. His condition was not addressed until a doctor from a free health clinic came to his home and fixed it.

This is the story that presidential candidate John Edwards tells as he travels throughout the state of Iowa to rally support in the final weeks before the caucuses. For Mr. Edwards, Lowe’s plight is symbolic of all Americans who cannot afford health care–and an inspiration for his new TV ad titled “Voice,” calling for a universal health care plan, which he says has been opposed by entrenched special interest groups. The belief that health care is every individual’s right–not a privilege–has become a cause that the former senator pledges to fight for in his run for the White House.

“He had no voice for 50 years, because with no health care, he couldn’t get a simple operation,” Edwards says in the ad.

“Fifty years without a voice — in America. This is wrong. It is immoral. When are we going to stop letting drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists run this country?”

John McCain seemed invigorated by an audience of veterans at an American Legion Post in James Island, South Carolina, Friday night.
The Senator said he was disgusted by the Walter Reed scandal, and spoke passionately about his plan to improve veterans’ health care.
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McCain seems to feel a genuine bond with veterans and military families. He says whenever he gets a little low, he gets a boost by talking to his fellow veterans.