Hillary Clinton swung back at her two main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination last night, rebuking them for changing their positions on healthcare and portraying herself as the most experienced and qualified candidate for her party's nomination.
The New York senator's pointed criticisms of her opponents - unusual for a front-runner seeking to remain above the fray - followed two shaky weeks for her campaign. She had been forced to defend herself against charges that she had changed positions on key issues, that she had played the gender card, and that her staff had planted friendly questions at campaign events.
But Clinton appeared to regain her footing last night, responding to attacks from her foes with a blend of humor and counterpunches, and firmly defending her positions on Iran, immigration, and Pakistan. Her performance in the 10th Democratic de bate since April came at a critical juncture in the race, less than two months before the first primary ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"I don't mind taking hits on my record, on issues," Clinton said at the Cox Pavilion at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, which hosted the state's first-ever presidential debate. But "when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it's accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook."
Clinton then took issue with former North Carolina senator John Edwards and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, who were most critical of her in the last Democratic debate, and who are her closest challengers in the early primary states. Edwards, Clinton said, did not support universal healthcare when he ran for president in 2004 but does now, and Obama, she said, would not cover all Americans in his healthcare plan, even though he could have proposed policies to do so.
Edwards and Obama lobbed a couple of criticisms at Clinton - "Was that a planted question?" Edwards asked the debate host, Wolf Blitzer, referring to the Clinton campaign's acknowledging that an aide had set up a college student to ask a prearranged question at a public event. But Obama and Edwards were booed when they criticized her personally, and after some sharp exchanges in the early minutes, the debate shifted back into discussions of key issues.
Obama defended his healthcare proposal. "I don't think that the problem with the American people is that they are not being forced to get healthcare," Obama said. "The problem is they can't afford it."
Obama hit back hard, however, when Clinton accused him of backing a $1 trillion tax hike to buttress Social Security. Obama wants to raise the $97,500 cap on the amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax. Since all wage-earners pay the same rate on the first $97,500, higher-income earners end up paying at a lower overall rate than poorer workers.
Clinton declined last night to say whether she would adjust the cap, repeating earlier comments that she wanted a commitment to "fiscal responsibility" before considering such a move.
"If you lift the cap completely, that is a $1 trillion tax increase," Clinton said, adding that she did not want to strengthen the Social Security trust fund on "the backs of the middle class and seniors."
Obama, who has not proposed lifting the cap entirely, said that only 6 percent of wage-earners earn more than $97,500 a year.
"This is the kind of thing I expect from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, when we start playing with numbers to make a point," Obama said, referring to two leading GOP candidates for president.
"This is the top 6 percent, and that is not middle class," Obama said during the exchange, which was part of a question-and-answer phase involving Nevada voters.
Nevada moved up its caucuses to Jan. 19, prodded mainly by Democrats who wanted to bring more attention to a Western state with strong Hispanic and labor union populations. But candidates have been spending little time in Nevada, focusing their efforts on early nominating states New Hampshire and Iowa.
The seven Democratic contenders largely agreed on key issues such as abortion and education. Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut all said they would appoint judges who believed in the right to privacy, which abortion-rights advocates see as the basis for the right to an abortion. On education, the candidates were heavily critical of the No Child Left Behind Law that several of them voted for, with Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico drawing cheers from the audience when he said he would "junk" the law that requires large-scale testing of students and punishments for schools that do not "perform."
But on dealing with Pakistan, the candidates clashed. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, who spoke to Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, soon after Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and other repressive measures, said the United States needs to help Pakistan with economic aid, not military aid, to buttress democratic forces there.
Asked if she would choose protecting human rights over US national security, Clinton said no. But she said the United States should pressure Musharraf to move ahead with democratic elections and lift the state of emergency.
Obama insisted the choice between human rights abroad and security at home was a false one.
"The concepts are not contradictory; they are complementary," Obama said, adding that if the United States allows repression in Pakistan to continue, anti-American sentiment there will grow.
The candidates also clashed on immigration. Clinton said she would not support giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, a position she took recently after absorbing criticism in the last debate that she was hedging on the issue. Obama, who was among those criticizing Clinton for being unclear on the issue, appeared to hesitate himself when first asked about it. Later, he said yes when asked if illegal immigrants should get licenses.
"Undocumented workers are not coming here to drive," but to get jobs, Obama said.
On Iran, Clinton's foes repeated their criticism of her vote for a resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a vote Edwards said could encourage the Bush administration to go to war in Iran. Clinton insisted she opposed a "rush to war" but said the United States needed to put pressure on Iran with the resolution.
Proudly noting she was the only woman in the race, Clinton also rejected the notion that she was using her gender as an issue. After she was criticized in the last debate, Clinton referred to the "boy's club" of presidential politics.
"I am not exploiting anything at all," she said. "I am not playing, as some people say, the gender card. Here in Las Vegas, I'm just trying to play the winning card."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
