Sparks Fly In Democratic Debate

In Nevada, Presidential Hopefuls Spar Over Health Care And Foreign Policy, Accuse Rivals Of Mudslinging

(CBS/AP)  Under pressure in a feisty debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her closest rivals Thursday night of slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook" and leveled her sharpest criticism of the campaign at their records.

"People are not attacking me because I'm a woman, they're attacking me because I'm ahead," Clinton said, striving to protect her standing as front-runner in an increasingly competitive nominating campaign.

"What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we have seen from Senator Clinton on a host of issues," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a debate seven weeks before the first contest of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"There's nothing personal about this," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who joined Obama in bluntly accusing Clinton of forever switching positions on Social Security, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants and other issues, turning aside the suggestion that she was seeking to hide her positions. Long an advocate of universal health care, she said Obama's current proposal leaves millions uncovered and that Edwards did not support health care for all when he first ran for president in 2004.

The three-way confrontation at the beginning of a lengthy debate reduced the other Democratic presidential hopefuls on the debate stage to the uncomfortable role of spectator, yet it perfectly captured the race for the party's nomination. Clinton leads in the nationwide polls, but recent surveys in Iowa show she is in a virtual dead heat with Obama and Edwards.

“This is the first time in these debates that Clinton has directly engaged and responded to the criticism from her opponents and she did so to great effect,” said CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs. “She managed to regain some of the certainty she has exuded for most of this campaign. But this remains a tight race in the crucial state of Iowa and that is not likely to change as a result of tonight’s debate.” (Read more debate analysis from Vaughn Ververs in Horserace.)

For New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, the opening moments were frustrating - and they repeatedly tried to break in.

"Oh, no, don't make me speak," Biden said in mock horror when moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN called on him roughly 15 minutes into the proceedings.

Richardson, who has campaigned in Nevada more than any other presidential hopeful, took verbal shots at Clinton and her two closest pursuers in the polls.

"Let's stop the mudslinging," he said.

He said Edwards is engaging in class warfare, Obama was trying to start a generational war and Clinton "with all due respect with her plan on Iraq doesn't end the war. All I want to do is give peace a chance."

Richardson was in the minority when the candidates were asked whether human rights could ever trump national security.

He said it could; Clinton said it could not, and Dodd said "obviously national security." Obama challenged the question, saying "the concepts are not contradictory."

Clinton seemed intent on redeeming what even she conceded was a sub-par performance at the previous debate, turning aside criticism from her rivals and answering questions with practiced ease.

Asked whether she was guilty of playing the "gender card" in her drive to become the first female president, she said she had not.

"I'm not playing the gender card here in Las Vegas," a magnet for gamblers. "I'm trying to play the winning card," she said.

Obama was the first to challenge Clinton, saying it took two weeks to "get a clear answer" on whether she supports or opposes issuing driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. "The same is true on Social Security," he said.

For the first time in a debate since the campaign began, Clinton swiftly answered in kind. "When it came time to step up and decide whether or not he would support universal health care coverage he chose not to do that," she said of Obama. She added his plan would leave 15 million people without coverage - the population of Iowa and three other early voting states in the nominating campaign.

Edwards was next to accuse Clinton of trying to have it both ways - with the war in Iraq, Social Security and defining the scope of President Bush's power to use military force against Iran. "She says she will bring change to Washington while she continues to defend a system that does not work, that is broken, that is rigged, that is corrupt," added the former North Carolina senator.

"I've just been personally attacked again," Clinton broke in. "I don't mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud at least we can hope it's accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook."

The debate unfolded on a stage at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The state holds caucuses on Jan. 19 - following Iowa on Jan. 3 and most likely the New Hampshire primary several days later.

The focus on Clinton from the debate's opening moments was hardly surprising.

The New York senator herself has conceded she turned in a sub-par performance at the last debate, when she stumbled on a question about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Her husband, the former president, leapt to her defense in the interim, saying of her rivals: "Those boys have been getting tough on her lately."

The setting underscored Nevada's newly prominent role in the nominating process. The state is far more racially diverse than either Iowa or New Hampshire, with a population that is about 22 percent Hispanic and 10 percent black.

Democrats in Nevada hoped the focus on their state would prompt candidates to pay closer heed to Western issues like water, grazing and mining rights.

But it was more than an hour into the two-hour debate before the issue of energy came up.

Instead, Clinton drew the first question - and moments later the first barb from Obama.

Despite her critics, she said, "I think the American people know where I've stood for 35 years," adding she had been fighting for children, workers, families and universal health care.

More than an hour later, Dodd sought to turn the focus back onto Clinton, saying she had changed positions on trade by announcing her support for a deal with Peru at the same time she advocates a "time out" for such agreements.

Moments earlier, Clinton gave a careful answer when asked whether she now viewed the North American Free Trade Agreement - a product of her husband's administration - to be a mistake.

"NAFTA is a mistake to the extent it did not deliver what we hoped it would," she said.

And she fielded another question about NAFTA with a quip. Asked whether she now believes Ross Perot when he argued against NAFTA in a 1993 debate with her husband's vice president, Al Gore, she said: "All I can remember from that is a bunch of charts," a reference to Perot's penchant for presenting information in made-for-television format.

[ljlyon]

You see! Dennis can win. I challenge all Progressives to get out the Kucinich vote in the Primaries and Caucus''. He''s a Democrat. The Electorate would have to recognize him. Opportunities like this don''t come along very often and quite frankly the clock is ticking on the planet''s ecosystems. We need him. He''s offering Progressive, Secular, Open minded citizens a real chance to choose an exciting new way to live. So, what are we waiting for? We need not buy into the Corporate Colonized Programing of our minds by believing Corporate media. "If you don''t have big money backing you; you''ll never win". We haven''t gone through the Primaries yet and our corporate funded candidates have already been picked. Privatization=Fascism. We need a swift, progressive, sweep and We could do it, if we really wanted to. Ask yourself, is this the future we want to hand to our children? A vote for Dennis Kucinich is a vote for our lives and our children''s lives. Can we do that for the next generation? Can we Americans come together, stand for integrity, and vote against the corporate elite? Vote NO MORE BLOOD FOR RECORD BREAKING PROFITS! An overwhelming Primary vote for Kucinich could change the world and we all know it. SO, why can''t we support Dennis Kucinich again?

[ianlou]

Hilary lost my vote when she claimed raising the $98,500 per person income limit to be taxed for Social Security would hurt the middle class.
Since when is $98,500 per year middle class? A dual income family at that rate would be considered, by her, middle class making $198,000 per year. Hilary obviously has spent too much time around middle class Manhattans.
Since she does not want to "overstress" these "middle class" Americans (and everyone else making more money than this all the way up to Bill Gates) with a tax increase, she instead proposes to raise the eligibility age for the rest of us real middle class baby boomers by half a decade at a time when we probably only have half to one and a half decades left in their lives. And to think I%u2019ve been paying into this pot with money taken from my paycheck every week of my working life.
Frankly this is something I would expect from Bush.

[fulluvit]

This article completely fails to mention the question from the mom whose son had already served three tours in Iraq and was afraid he''d be deployed to Iran next. When Dennis Kucinich suggested that Bush and Cheney both need to be impeached NOW, she applauded along with the rest of the crowd. Kucinich also scored big with the crowd when pointing out that the other candiddates had changed their minds on endorsing the war, NAFTA, the Patriot Act, trade relations with China and Yucca Mountain (nuclear storage facility), and asked if America would rather have a candidate who had the right response to these issues the first time.

[antoniof123]

You know guys you really don''t have to fight one of the Democrats will win in November of 2008 the GOP is setting themselves up for a blood bath.

[yamuttya]

.m;lkmv.mcxv

[colonieny]

I did not hear any new ideas,(except for Biden, who is a straight shooter - and kicked some butt- The Patriotic Act vs. liar Kosinich- the twerp).

The real winners were the Republicans.

[jetranger7]

NEWS BULLITIN : Just read that the Govenor of OREGON, is going to attempt to let ILLEGALS obtain a Drivers license in the state of OREGON, isn''t that a croc of BS !!!!!! Whats next Pilots Licenses for Illegals too !!! Time to put a Stop to this Non-sense people !!

[likeitis5050]

I love it. More. More. They might as well just stand and knock each other around. If nothing else, they should be entertaining.

[down-ndirty]

I''ll vote for the person who realized and fixes the social security problem: The wealthy aren''t paying their fair share.

Anyone at the SS "income cap" of about $95,000 pay over 6% of their income to SS; people making ten times the cap pay about 0.6% to SS; people making 100 times the cap pay about 0.06%.

Those making over $95,000/year are less than 7% of the work force and they are definitely NOT middle class. No wonder social security is ******* up...the middle class is carrying the bulk of the load.

As ******* usual, the rich aren''t carry their share of the load.

[down-ndirty]

I''ll vote for the person who realized and fixes the social security problem: The wealthy aren''t paying their fair share.

Anyone at the SS "income cap" of about $95,000 pay over 6% of their income to SS; people making ten times the cap pay about 0.6% to SS; people making 100 times the cap pay about 0.06%.

Those making over $95,000/year are less than 7% of the work force and they are definitely NOT middle class. No wonder social security is ******* up...the middle class is carrying the bulk of the load.

As ******* usual, the rich aren''t carry their share of the load.