Clinton, Obama trade jabs on electability, honesty

By Susan Milligan and Scott Helman, Globe Staff

PHILADELPHIA -- Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took their hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination down to a deeply personal level in a nationally televised debate tonight, trading barbs on honesty, their appeal to working-class voters, and who would be a stronger candidate in November.

Clinton, struggling to gain momentum in the dwindling weeks of the primary campaign, accused Obama of associating with unsavory people, including his own former preacher, and questioned whether Obama -- whom she called "a good man'' -- could beat the GOP nominee in the fall.

"They're going to be out there in full force," Clinton said of the Republicans. "I've been in this arena for a long time. I have a lot of baggage and everybody has rummaged through it for years."

Obama, meanwhile, criticized the New York lawmaker for running a negative campaign, and said Clinton herself could not pass the electability test she was imposing on him.

"By Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she would make it,'' he said.

While Clinton attacked Obama for his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, the former leader of the Weather Underground, a violent 1960s radical group, Obama noted that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had pardoned two members of the same group. With Clinton's own political baggage, Obama said, "there is no doubt that the Republicans would attack either of us."

The debate, their 21st of the primary campaign but first in seven weeks, came at a critical juncture in the contest for the support of Pennsylvania Democrats, whose vote in Tuesday's primary will set the race's course. Clinton, who holds a narrow lead in the polls thanks to her political base of older and working-class voters, is seeking a big win to build momentum. Obama, ahead in delegates and popular vote, is angling for a knockout blow.

Both candidates used the nearly two-hour debate, broadcast by ABC from Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, to underscore the need to come together as Democrats and as a country. But they frequently interrupted their pleas for unity and reconciliation with jabs at each other.

Both senators -- Obama, a well-to-do lawyer and best-selling author who has earned more than $8 million over the past eight years, and Clinton, who with her former president husband, has collected some $109 million during that period -- cast themselves as champions of the working class. Clinton referred to her grandfather's history as a factory worker in Scranton; Obama recalled his childhood in a single-parent household and his work as a community organizer.

Clinton quickly seized the chance to attack Obama for his comments earlier this month that many economically struggling Pennsylvanians in small towns are "bitter'' and "cling to guns or religion."

"I think that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of religion and faith,'' Clinton said. "I similarly don't think that people cling to their traditions like hunting or guns when they are frustrated with the government. I can see why people would be taken aback or offended by the remarks."

Obama acknowledged that he "mangled'' his observation about small-town America, but said Clinton -- roundly attacked for saying in 1992 that she did not want to spend her days as First Lady baking cookies and holding teas -- should know better than to accuse home of being "elitist.''

"You take one person's statement that's not properly phrased, and you beat it to death, and that's what Senator Clinton's been doing over the past several days,'' Obama said. "That's not helping the person who's sitting behind the kitchen table, trying to pay bills.''

When Clinton was criticized for her comment about making cookies, "people attacked her for being elitist. I remember watching that on TV and saying, 'Well, that's not who she is.' "

Clinton used Obama's comments about "bitter" Pennsylvanians, his involvement with his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and his relationship with Ayers to raise concerns about Obama's electability.

"It's clear that as leaders that we have a choice about who we associate with, and who we kind of give our seal of approval to," Clinton said. "These are problems, and they raise questions in people's minds."

Obama acknowledged that many of Wright's remarks -- such as his sermon that America was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- were "objectionable,'' but said he was not personally present for the sermons that have been replayed repeatedly and used against him.

"I believe that he loves this country,'' Obama said. But, he said, Wright is "also angry about the injustice that he sees.''

While Obama found himself on the defensive for most of the first hour of the debate, Clinton, too, was questioned about her honesty. In a new national ABC News/Washington Post poll, 54 percent of Democratic voters surveyed said they view her unfavorably, and 58 percent said she is not trustworthy.

A voter who appeared by videotape said Clinton "really lost my vote'' when she exaggerated the danger she faced when she took a trip to Bosnia in 1996 at first lady. Clinton had said several times in the campaign has said she made a "corkscrew'' landing and faced sniper fire as she traversed the tarmack -- an account proved wrong by TV footage showing a smiling Clinton greeted by a small Bosnian girl at an apparently calm airport.

"I have been embarrassed by it, I've apologized for it, and I've said it was a mistake," she said.

Neither candidate appeared pleased with the suggestion by former New York governor Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat, that the two foes agree in advance to team up on a Democratic ticket.

"Yes, yes, yes,'' Clinton said when pressed to say whether she believes Obama can beat Arizona Senator John McCain in November. But "I think I'd do a better job,'' she said.

Asked a similar question about Clinton, Obama said, "Absolutely and I've said so before," before adding that he believes he would be the stronger nominee.