COLUMBIA, S.C. - When she was looking unstoppable last year as the Democratic primary race took shape, Senator Hillary Clinton was often accused by rivals, critics, and even some supporters of peering past the nomination fight to the general election.
Clinton, they argued, was orienting her campaign more toward the GOP field than her chief primary opponents, Barack Obama and John Edwards. And she was trying to look tough on national security for a broader audience of Republicans, independents, and centrist Democrats.
But as Clinton and Obama now battle for supremacy in the make-or-break contests that lie ahead, they have undergone something of a role reversal: It is now Obama who finds himself questioned about his allegiance to rank-and-file Democrats as Clinton retools her message to target the party's core constituencies.
The tightening of the nomination contest and the presidential campaign's pivot from foreign to domestic policy - particularly to the worsening economy - have catalyzed this shift, which could have major implications for upcoming votes. As Obama tries to win the nomination with a novel coalition of independents, Republicans, and Democrats, Clinton is trying to build on her success among tried-and-true Democrats in New Hampshire and Nevada.
Clinton and her husband, Bill, the former president, have sought to exploit this divide in South Carolina in advance of tomorrow's primary, trying to persuade Democrats that Obama's views on the economy and healthcare are out of step with the party. Her campaign has also tried to question Obama's commitment to abortion rights by citing past "present" votes in the Illinois Senate.
The Clintons, along with Edwards, seized on comments Obama made in a recent newspaper interview in which he brought up President Ronald Reagan and said Republicans had positioned themselves as the "party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years."
Quoting Obama selectively, Clinton's campaign used those words against him in a radio ad before pulling it yesterday under heavy criticism. "Aren't those the ideas that got us into the economic mess we're in today?" the narrator said. "Ideas like special tax breaks for Wall Street. Running up a $9 trillion debt. Refusing to raise the minimum wage or deal with the housing crisis. Are those the ideas Barack Obama's talking about?"
Obama countered with his own radio spot charging that Clinton will "say anything, and change nothing." He also contends that he is more attuned to the needs of struggling Americans because he was the first to propose an economic stimulus plan offering immediate rebates to taxpayers and to seniors.
Clinton has also used the main policy difference between her and Obama's healthcare plans - she would require Americans to buy insurance, while Obama would not - to make a case that his views are out-of-sync with Democrats. Clinton contends that Obama's proposal would leave millions uninsured and in doing so would betray an obligation that party leaders had to enact universal coverage.
"The whole idea of universal healthcare is such a core Democratic principle that I am willing to go to the mat for it," she said in last night's debate.
At the same time, Obama is barreling ahead with what has long been his game plan - bringing new voters into the primary process, making overt appeals to independents and disenchanted Republicans, and emphasizing the promise he holds to unite the country above his ability to energize the Democratic base.
Pointing to its success in Nevada, where Obama actually won more delegates than Clinton by attracting broad support across the state, his campaign is targeting congressional districts in upcoming primaries and caucuses where independents and Republicans carry influence. On Monday, Obama launched a national TV ad that focuses largely on his work with Republicans in the Illinois Senate and in the US Senate.
Obama and his supporters portray his appeal among nontraditional Democrats as proof of his electability in November, suggesting that Clinton is so partisan and polarizing that she may cost the party the White House in the general election.
"The people who will decide the election in places like Missouri, in places like Arizona, in places like Ohio these are people who want to see someone who is not just about saying Republicans are bad guys," Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who recently threw her support to Obama, told reporters on a conference call yesterday. "They want to see someone who understands that what this should be about is America, and that the people of America need help."
The electability argument is one Obama should emphasize if he wants to show voters that he is more committed to the party's success than Clinton is, said Stephen J. Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University.
"Democrats want to win," Wayne said.
The dynamic is different in South Carolina and several other early-voting states with especially diverse populations, where Obama enjoys increasingly strong support among black Democrats.
Therefore, the big tests for the contrasting approaches Obama and Clinton are taking will come on Feb. 5, when 22 states vote in Democratic primaries or caucuses. In some of them - such as Massachusetts, Missouri, and California - independents and Democrats can vote, which favors Obama. In others - including Connecticut, New York, and Colorado - only registered Democrats can participate, favoring Clinton.
Exit polls from the three contests so far explain why: Clinton won Nevada and New Hampshire in part because she beat Obama by double digits among self-identified Democrats; Obama won Iowa by barely edging Clinton among Democrats but racking up big margins among Republicans and independents.
This reversal of roles by Clinton and Obama from last year is purely of Clinton's making, said Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, who worked for Howard Dean in 2004 but is neutral this cycle.
"A funny thing happened on the way to the general election," he said. "The Clinton campaign discovered that it actually had a primary."
That discovery has arguably returned Clinton to her more natural form as an establishment-backed Democrat whose appeal nationally is mainly within her party.
Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton White House veteran now advising her campaign, is quoted in The New Yorker this month saying that the 2008 election is not about conciliation, but about ending Republicans' reign and establishing "a progressive Democratic era."
"It's not a question of transcending partisanship," he said. "It's a question of fulfilling it."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.
