Obama, Clinton trade blows in S.C.
Spar over records; former president at center of storm
WASHINGTON - The deepening feud between the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton burst into a verbal brawl during last night's Democratic debate, with Obama accusing Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, of distorting the facts on his record and Hillary Clinton charging that Obama has not given "a straight answer" on any position since he began running for the presidency.
At one point, the rhetorical fisticuffs devolved into political mudslinging: Clinton said that Obama once represented a "slum landlord" in Chicago, and Obama said that while he was working as an organizer for the poor in Chicago, she was busy as a corporate lawyer serving on the board of
Clinton's accusation that Obama worked with a Chicago slumlord referred to developer Tony Rezko, a longtime Obama fund-raiser charged with a range of offenses in 2006. Obama's campaign has said it has since donated Rezko's contributions to charity and will give away money from donors linked to him. Clinton, for her part, was on Wal-Mart's board from 1986 to 1992, and in 2006 returned a contribution from its political action committee, saying she disagreed with corporate policies.
The debate, hosted by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation from a theater in Myrtle Beach, S.C., was a full-scale escalation of the clash between the two leading Democratic presidential candidates on live, prime-time television. But tensions were heightened yesterday when Obama questioned President Clinton's truthfulness in two high-profile interviews and the former president repeated his accusations that Obama's campaign intimidated Hillary Clinton's supporters during last weekend's Nevada caucuses.
The escalation comes before the South Carolina Democratic primary Saturday, a contest Obama probably must win, and one that hinges on the state's African-American electorate. Both Senator Clinton of New York and Obama, her congressional colleague from Illinois, have been fighting to win over black voters, and the former president still widely popular in the black community has triggered several skirmishes.
Also, as several candidates have dropped out of the Democratic race in recent weeks, the more intimate debates have become increasingly acrimonious and personal.
After Obama surprised the Clinton campaign by winning the Iowa caucuses, Bill Clinton harshly critiqued Obama's antiwar stance, declaring it "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."
The two campaigns had a cease-fire during the Nevada Democratic debate, but it dissolved after the Clinton campaign jumped on Obama's remarks that seemed to indicate he admired the Republican Party under President Reagan.
Last night, Obama came out swinging. Responding to a question about economic aid for the poor and middle-class, Obama restated his allegations, made in a TV network interview and to the editorial board at a local newspaper, that President Clinton's attacks against him went too far.
"When President Clinton asserts that I said the GOP [had good ideas], that is not the case," Obama said. "There have been a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton" that distort his record.
In response, Clinton repeated the charge, adding that "I personally think [the GOP] had ideas, but they were bad ideas," she said.
The third candidate on the stage, former North Carolina senator John Edwards, broke in to ask: "Are there three people in this debate, not two?"
For the most part, the candidates held to their core themes. Edwards highlighted his willingness to fight against poverty and inequality, Obama reiterated his message of inclusion, and Clinton touted her readiness to lead the nation. But the fight between Clinton and Obama dominated the evening.
They traded heavy blows over each other's record and rhetoric, drawing applause and some disbelieving gasps from the audience. Clinton drew boos from the pro-Obama crowd when she scolded him, "You never take responsibility for any vote."
During another exchange over whether it was Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton who had criticized him, Obama shot back: "Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."
Earlier, Obama told ABC News and The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., that President Clinton and his wife have deliberately distorted his record to place him on the defensive. The former president, "who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Obama told ABC.
Though Clinton praised Obama as "a great speaker, a smart man, someone who loves our country," and of whom Martin Luther King Jr. could be proud, the former president said Obama's representatives harassed members of the Culinary Workers Union, which handed Obama a critical endorsement.
"I haven't seen anything like that in America in 35 years," President Clinton said.
In South Carolina, the stakes are high for Senator Clinton as well as Obama; it is an important test of her appeal among blacks.
Over the King holiday weekend, Obama delivered a stirring address at King's former church in Atlanta, considered the bully pulpit of black America. Senator Clinton, however, recently won the endorsement of an influential black minister in New York City.
Last night, when the debate shifted to a round-table discussion, the candidates replaced blunt force with sharp wit.
Asked about writer Toni Morrison's notion that Bill Clinton is "the first black president," Obama praised his racial empathy, but deadpanned that he would have to see the former president dance "before I accurately can judge whether he is in fact a brother."
Senator Clinton didn't miss a beat. "I'm sure that can be arranged," she quipped.
Minutes later, asked whether her husband "can afford to tone it down" when critiquing Obama, a fellow Democrat, Senator Clinton didn't answer directly. "He is very much advocating on my behalf. He is a tremendous asset," she said. "He cares very much about this country and what's at stake."
Correction: Because of a reporting error, a Page One story yesterday on the Democratic presidential candidates' debate incorrectly identified the agency sponsoring the forum in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The agency is the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. 