December 15, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 4, 1428

JOHNSTON (Iowa): Hillary Clinton on Friday denied her White House campaign was in disarray, despite sliding poll ratings and an uproar sparked by an aide who questioned her rival Barack Obama’s drug history.

“If I had listened to ... the Washington chattering class, I would not be standing here would I?” Clinton told reporters, as controversy and reports of campaign turmoil swirled around her 2008 president bid.

“I believe in trusting my own instincts. I feel very, very good about the case that I am making.”

Signs of new fragility in Clinton’s 2008 bid came just 20 days before the first nominating contest in the race, the Iowa caucuses, and amid signs Obama is surging in the polls.

Clinton held a press conference a day after key New Hampshire powerbroker Bill Shaheen quit her campaign after saying Republicans would use Obama’s admitted dabbling in drugs as a campaign issue.

Shaheen had told the Washington Post that Republicans would attack Obama for his past drug use, which the Illinois senator acknowledged as a folly of his youth in a memoir.

“It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’” Shaheen said.—AFP