Edwards, Obama attack Clinton in debate
WASHINGTON -- Frontrunner Hillary Clinton came under relentless fire last night from fellow Democrats, who slammed the former First Lady on issue ranging from Iran to Social Security and all but called their chief rival a liar as they sought to slow down the New York senator's campaign momentum.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama said Clinton shifted her positions on the Iraq war and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards accused her of supporting a "broken system" in Washington and of enabling President Bush to advance toward war with Iran. And Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd -- with negligible showings in the polls -- questioned whether his New York colleague was "electable."
At the Democratic debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Clinton fielded repeated shots from her rivals, including three current Senate colleagues as well as former senator Edwards, who are competing with her for their party's nomination.
"Senator Clinton...has been for NAFTA, now she's against it. She voted for a way to authorize sending troops to Iraq, and later said this was a war for diplomacy," Obama said in his opening salvo. "That may be politically savvy, but I don't think it offers the clear contrast we need."
When Clinton refused to detail her plans for Social Security -- or to say one way or another if she would support giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, as New York Governor Elliot Spitzer is seeking to do -- her opponents accused her of dodging the issues.
In case I misheard, Senator Clinton said two different things in the last two minutes," Edwards said on the driver's license issue.
Clinton called the drivers' license issue a "gotcha" question. But her response, late in the debate, provided ammunition to her opponents who have accused the New York senator of side-stepping questions to protect herself politically.
Obama shook his head theatrically when Clinton -- pressed several times to say if she agreed with the position of her state's governor -- refused to state a clear view. "I am confused by Senator Clinton's answer. I can't tell if she is for it or against it," Obama said, adding that he thinks the drivers' licenses should be provided to undocumented immigrants so that drivers can be identified and tracked in case of a car accident.
The former First Lady, clearly anticipating the attacks after reports this week that Obama was planning to be tougher on her, spoke calmly and evenly as she sought to deflect the criticisms, expressing disbelief that she could be considered insufficiently harsh on Bush and Republicans.
"I don't think Republicans got the message that I'm voting and sounding like them," Clinton said. "I have stood against George Bush and his failed policies."
Indeed, Clinton has increasingly become the lightning rod for Republican criticism as she has gained ground in recent national opinion polls, much like her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s.
Her Democratic foes posited that Republicans were attacking her because they thought she would be the easiest candidate to defeat next year. "Part of the reason the Republicans are obsessed with you is that is a fight they are willing to be having," Obama said.
Typical of front-runner candidates, Clinton did not counter-attack her Democratic opponents for the nomination, saving her shots for Bush and congressional Republicans who she said had short-changed American children on health care and were bent on privatizing Social Security. All the Democrats on the stage last night are in favor of expanding the SCHIP program to provide health insurance for low- and middle-income children, and none backs privatization of the country's popular retirement program.
In addition to the heated exchange over her position on the driver's licenses for immigrants, despite aggressive quesitoning by both the debate moderators and her fellow presidential contenders, Clinton also would not agree to push for the release of White House memos between her and her husband. She said it was in the hands of the National Archives.
But the New York senator was forced to defend some of her votes and positions, including her vote for a non-binding resolution deeming the Iranian national Guard a "terrorist" organization. Clinton is the only Democratic candidate who supported the resolution; she said it bolstered diplomatic tools to deal with Iran, such as economic sanctions, but her opponents said it could lead the nation into another war in the Middle East.
"I think it can be used as a de fact declaration" of war, said Delaware Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chiding Clinton for a vote that he said would embolden Republican hardliners. "There are consequences for what we do."
Dodd likened the vote to her 2002 vote to authorize force in Iraq. "I believe that this.. is going to come back to haunt us,'' Dodd said. "I'm very concered we're going to see those 78 votes [for the Iran resolution] come back, waved in our face." New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson also expressed his worries about the Iran vote, although he decried what he called the "personal" nature of the criticism of Clinton.
The New York senator said she is "not in favor of a rush to war" with Iran, but added, "I also am not in favor of doing nothing." She declined to say where she would draw the "red line" at which she would consider an attack on Iran, which the Bush administration suspects is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
The candidates saved a few shots for the Republican contenders, with Biden saying former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the least qualified Republican candidate for president since George Bush. "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence - a noun, a verb, and 9-11, Biden said, drawing raucous laughter from the crowd.
And Obama, asked how he would dress for Halloween, suggested he might go as the former governor of Massachusetts. "I am thinking of wearing a Mitt Romney, mask, but it has two sides to it,'' Obama quipped, referring to charges that Romney has flip-flopped on issues.
