Clinton attacks on all fronts
Obama hits back on health, trade, war, campaign tactics
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Seeking a much-needed jolt of momentum, Senator Hillary Clinton used the 20th and perhaps final Democratic debate last night to attack Senator Barack Obama tenaciously on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues, seizing on Obama's healthcare plan, Iraq war votes, and campaign tactics to try to get him off his game.
Clinton, who by most accounts faces must-win votes Tuesday in Ohio and Texas, signaled from the debate's opening moments that she would take a more aggressive tack than she did when they debated last week, confronting Obama on what she said were misleading fliers his campaign had sent voters distorting her positions on healthcare and trade.
"We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading, and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality,affordable healthcare for everyone," Clinton said.
Obama responded that it was Clinton, by contending that his healthcare plan would leave out 15 million Americans, who was spreading falsehoods. "Senator Clinton repeatedly claims that I don't stand for universal healthcare. And, you know, for Senator Clinton to say that I think is simply not accurate," he said.
The debate, held at Cleveland State University, comes at a pivotal moment in the Democratic nomination race. After Clinton's 11 straight primary and caucus losses to Obama, even top Clinton supporters and advisers believe she must win both Texas and Ohio or consider ending her presidential bid.
Clinton once led in both states by comfortable margins, but neither looks certain anymore. Obama has narrowed the gap considerably in Ohio, and some recent Texas polls have indicated him narrowly ahead there. A combined 334 delegates are at stake in the two states, along with 36 in Rhode Island and Vermont.
But at this stage of the race, perceptions and momentum matter more than delegates. And if Clinton fails to capture both states, leading Democrats will surely begin urging her to drop out so the party can rally around Obama and begin preparing for the general election match-up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
At times last night, Clinton's frustration at her position was evident. Not 20 minutes into the debate, she expressed exasperation at being asked first about the North American Free Trade Agreement, an especially volatile issue in Ohio over which the two Democrats have tangled. She even alluded to a "Saturday Night Live" skit over the weekend that parodied the media's supposedly fawning coverage of Obama.
"Well, could I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time?" Clinton said. "You know, I'll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious. And if anybody saw 'Saturday Night Live,' you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow."
Clinton injected criticisms of Obama whenever she could, using a question about her campaign trail rhetoric, for example, to hit Obama for his Senate votes on an energy bill and a credit card measure. She also repeatedly cast herself as a "fighter," implying that Obama's conciliatory intentions were naive.
"I want to help the people of this country get the chances they deserve to have," she said in her closing remarks. "Because I think we do need a fighter back in the White House."
But Obama, citing Clinton's unsuccessful attempts at universal healthcare during her husband's presidency in the 1990s, said that fighting instinct can be counterproductive.
"She had the view that what's required is simply to fight," he said. "And Senator Clinton ended up fighting not just the insurance companies and the drug companies, but also members of her own party."
Obama again framed his inspirational power as a necessary asset for the next president, saying he or she must be able to bring the country together to solve pressing challenges.
"There's nothing romantic or silly about that," he said. "If the American people are activated, that's how change is going to happen."
The issue of trade - and of NAFTA specifically - was front and center last night, largely because it is a controversial deal in Ohio that many blame for killing jobs. Clinton and Obama both faced tough questions from panelist Tim Russert of NBC about their past remarks on the trade agreement, and both said they would put the option of withdrawing from it on the table in order to renegotiate a better deal with Canada and Mexico.
"I'm confident that as president, when I say we will opt out, unless we renegotiate, we will be able to renegotiate," Clinton said.
The two Democrats exchanged pointed words over each other's records on the war in Iraq, which contrast sharply even as economic and domestic concerns become dominant in the race. Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion, which Obama opposed from the start. After Obama again touted a high-profile antiwar speech he gave in Chicago before the war, Clinton pointed out that he, like her, had subsequently voted for war funding, and that their records on Iraq were similar since he came to the Senate in 2005.
"When it wasn't just a speech, but it was actually action, where is the difference?" she said. "Where is the comparison that would in some way give a real credibility to the speech that he gave against the war?"
Obama shot back: "Once we had driven the bus into the ditch, there were only so many ways we could get out. The question is: Who's making the decision initially to drive the bus into the ditch? And the fact is that Senator Clinton often says that she is ready on day one, but, in fact, she was ready to give in to George Bush on day one on this critical issue."
Toward the end of the debate, Russert asked Obama whether he would reject the recently announced endorsement from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic remarks make him a controversial figure.
"Well, Tim, I can't say to somebody that he can't say that he thinks I'm a good guy," Obama said, but added that he had denounced Farrakhan publicly in the past.
Clinton then chimed in and, citing a similar experience during her Senate race in New York, suggested Obama was not distancing himself enough.
"There's a difference between denouncing and rejecting," she said.
"I have to say I don't see a difference between denouncing and rejecting," Obama responded. "But if the word reject Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word denounce, then I'm happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce."
"Good, good. Excellent," Clinton said.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 