Schumer Allegedly Backed Clinton in Public, Obama in Private

A new book that digs the dirt on the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election claims that Charles "Chuck" Schumer, the senior Senator for the state of New York, supported his fellow State Senator Hillary Clinton in public and her opponent Barack Obama in private.

Grabbing the headlines because of its revelation that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once made inappropriate remarks in private regarding the ethnicity of President Barack Obama, the book which the New York Post confirms has as its full title Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime claims that Senator Schumer, a Democrat member of the upper house in the U.S. Congress for over 10 years, felt obliged to publicly support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, while privately believing that Barack Obama was better suited for the White House. Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Senator Schumer, has refuted the claims made by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, the authors of Game Change, saying:

This is ridiculous. Senator Schumer did have conversations with then-Senator Obama long before Senator Clinton announced and told him he would be a good candidate. But he told Senator Obama at the time, should Clinton announce, which was expected, that he would fully back her. From the day she announced to the day she withdrew, he was a full and complete supporter of then-Senator Clinton and gave no help to the Obama campaign

According to the New York Daily News another claim made by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann is that in the summer of 2007 Senator Schumer was one of the people who believed Barack Obama should "get tougher" with Hillary Clinton, "Obama needed to take a two-by-four to Hillary" apparently being a quote from the book. Another Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill from Missouri, on occasions mentioned as possibly the first female President of the U.S. - the New York Times did so in May 2008 - has denied being aware that Senator Schumer had conflicting loyalties. Speaking to the New York Daily News on Saturday she said:

It wasn't like he [Schumer] came to me and said, 'Be for Barack Obama - I gotta be for Hillary. He never, ever said a word to me that would give that kind of impression

The New York Post, in addition to reporting that Harry Reid has been named in the book that has publicly embarrassed him once already as one of the Senators with doubts over Mrs Clinton's candidacy for the Presidency, notes that Game Change details alleged concerns within the McCain/Palin campaign team over the ability of the former Governor of Alaska to remember basic facts relating to the Federal Reserve, North and South Korea and Saddam Hussein's connection to the 9/11 attacks.