At a town hall forum in Washington, Iowa, tonight, Senator Barack Obama defended his foreign policy credentials to voters. “Even by the standards of Washington, I have dealt more with foreign policy than let’s say Bill Clinton had when he became president, or Ronald Reagan, who was a governor at the time,” Obama said.

He continued, “I’m not relying on the conventional wisdom - I’m relying on judgments based on a lifetime of experience and my service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and that’s why I’m confident of my ability to provide leadership on the foreign policy front.” As evidence of his qualifications, Obama offered his consistent views on the Iraq war, his opposition to the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment dealing with Iran, and his disapproval to the practices Pakistan leader, Pervez Musharraf. In the past, Obama has touted his years living abroad as a child as part of his foreign policy resume.

Tonight Senator Obama went one step further. “You could argue that there are more foreign policy experts from the Clinton administration supporting me than Senator Clinton,” he said.

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And that is when the Clinton Camp responded.

Spokesman Jay Carson quickly issued a list of 83 names of former Bill Clinton advisors who are backing Hillary Clinton  (according to the Associated Press, the Obama campaign provided 47 names) , and poked fun at Obama’s word choice, saying, “I could argue that the Red Sox have won more World Series than the Yankees, but that doesn’t make it true.” His “false claims,” Carson said, raise “more questions about his own lack of experience,” a recurring theme of the Clinton campaign.

The war of words continued when Team Obama noted that the list provided by the Clinton campaign is “full of ambassadors that were fundraisers, not policy experts.” They pointed to a New York Times article, which stated, “Hillary Clinton’s inner circle consists of the senior-most figures from her husband’s second term in office….but drill down into one of Washington’s foreign-policy hives, whether the Carnegie Institution or Georgetown University, and you’re bound to hit Obama supporters.” These supporters, journalist James Traub wrote, are Clinton-types who have “decamped to Obama.”

This fight will likely continue to brew on the campaign trail before the Christmas holiday.