Clinton, Obama step up their sparring along the trail

CONCORD, N.H. -- With the first Democratic primary still six months away, the long-running rivalry between Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois reached a new pitch yesterday when Obama likened Clinton's views of diplomacy to "Bush-Cheney light."

The clash, which has escalated since Monday night's debate, comes over who has the smarter approach to American foreign policy. Obama yesterday derided Clinton's reticence to meet foreign dictators as hidebound thinking, and Clinton retorted later in the day by questioning Obama's commitment to running a positive campaign.

The dispute, their first serious toe-to-toe encounter of the primary race, has exposed lines of attack from the two Democratic top contenders that voters are sure to see again and again throughout the second half of 2007: To Clinton, Obama lacks the experience and wisdom to be president; to Obama, Clinton lacks the judgment and fresh thinking to lead the country in 2009.

"That little debate and this little fight reflects a bigger way in which they're positioning themselves against each other," said Julian E. Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

He added, "I think the tension was already there, and this was one of the first public incarnations of it."

This new phase of spirited engagement between Clinton and Obama, which is also sucking oxygen away from the other six Democratic presidential contenders, began during the debate Monday night. The candidates were asked whether they would commit to sitting down, unconditionally, with leaders of nations such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea; Obama said he would, but Clinton argued it could "make a situation even worse" to promise such high-level summits without many assurances and preconditions.

Their split over that question made headlines the next day, and the war of words between the two and their surrogates has only intensified.

On Tuesday, both camps issued memos touting their candidate's foreign policy prescriptions and criticizing the opponent's. Clinton's campaign said that it was "a mistake to commit the power and prestige of America's presidency years ahead of time by making such a blanket commitment." Obama's campaign tried to clarify his answer by saying he would not agree to high-level meetings without "diplomatic spadework," but it also said his willingness to sit down with anyone represented "exactly the kind of change and new thinking that excites voters about an Obama presidency."

Later that day, the candidates stepped up the sparring in separate interviews to the Quad-City Times, an Iowa newspaper. Clinton said of Obama's remarks in the debate, "I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naïve." Obama countered by saying, "If anything is irresponsible and naïve it was to authorize George Bush to send 160,000 young American men and women into Iraq apparently without knowing how they were going to get out."

Obama continued his aggressive posture yesterday in New Hampshire, using an endorsement announcement in Concord to attack Clinton's foreign policy stance.

"I don't want a continuation of Bush-Cheney," he said. "I don't want Bush-Cheney light."

"The times are over when just talking tough or refusing to talk to folks is somehow an emblem of your toughness," he continued.

"We're going to be tough and smart and we are not going to be afraid of anybody in affirming what America is all about."

Speaking yesterday at the College Democrats of America convention at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Obama appeared to refer to his chief rival again, though not by name. He said President Bush had divided the country during his two terms, and "that's why the experience we need in the next president is the ability to bring this country together."

In an interview with the Globe after yesterday's New Hampshire event, Obama said he and Clinton were having a "good, fun . . . important debate about the direction of the country."

"She, I think in this debate, is representing a kind of conventional Washington thinking that led her to vote to authorize a war without asking some tough questions," Obama said. "And that is the type of debate we should be having in the Democratic primary."

Obama insisted he could be aggressive against his rivals while adhering to his pledge of running a unifying campaign.

"I don't think there is any contradiction between that and feeling hopeful about the future," he said.

But Clinton, appearing on CNN yesterday, suggested there was a contradiction between Obama's campaign slogans and his rhetoric on the trail.

"Well, this is getting kind of silly," she said. "I've been called a lot of things in my life, but I've never been called George Bush or Dick Cheney certainly. We have to ask, what's ever happened to the politics of hope?"

She said the United States had to "end the Bush era of ignoring problems, ignoring enemies and adversaries," but also not risk the "power and prestige of the United States president" by hastily agreeing to meet with the country's enemies.

The Clinton-Obama rivalry has gradually been getting fiercer since the start of the year, which began with Clinton as the presumed Democratic front-runner and Obama as an unknown quantity. Over the past six months, Clinton has retained her dominance in most polls, but Obama's fund-raising prowess and many donors have shaken up the race.

The foreign policy dispute is also diverting attention from the other Democrats running for the nomination, including former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who delivered a major economic speech in Iowa yesterday proposing an overhaul of the federal tax code. Two rivals, Senators Joseph Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, have expressed concern that it has become a distraction.

Dodd, who released his healthcare plan yesterday, said in a statement: "Unfortunately, this false debate, which has now lingered for days, has become just another personal argument among politicians, and that's lamentable given the stakes in this election."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.