Mark Penn, who was Mrs Clinton's chief strategist for most of her presidential campaign after previously being a senior aide to her husband President Bill Clinton, accused Mr Obama of having "wandered into the thicket of class warfare".
His intervention came after a speech on Monday in which Mr Obama advocated raising $1.5 trillion in taxes, mainly on high earners, over the next decade. This was widely interpreted as a repositioning to the Left and was broadly welcomed by liberal activists and groups.
In an article for the Huffington Post website, Mr Penn wrote: "Barack Obama is careering down the wrong path towards re-election. He should be working as a president, not a candidate. He should be claiming the vital centre, not abandoning it.
"He should be holding down taxes rather than raising them. He should be mastering the global economy, not running away from it. And most of all, he should be bringing the country together rather than dividing it through class warfare." Read on and comment » | Toby Harnden, Washington | Tuesday, September 20, 2011
