Monday, 4 June 20072008 Democrats trade blows on Iraq
MANCHESTER, United States 04/06/2007 09:24
Top Democratic presidential hopefuls traded their sharpest barbs of the 2008 campaign so far Sunday, as differences over Iraq burst into the open during their second televised debate.
In a string of snappy exchanges, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and ex-vice presidential nominee John Edwards sparred over their positions on the initial decision to wage war, and how to end the bloody conflict.
Edwards provoked the sniping, early in the event in New Hampshire, which hosts the first state primary nominating election in January, accusing Clinton and Obama of not doing enough to bring troops home.
"It's the difference between leading and following," he said, referring to his demands for Congress to immediately use its power to cut war funding.
"There is a difference between leadership and legislating."
Edwards, who trails Clinton and Obama in national polls, appeared determined to use the debate to court grass-roots Democrats who are overwhelmingly opposed to the war, and want immediate troop redeployments.
But Obama scolded Edwards, who like Clinton was a member of the Senate in 2002 and voted to authorize President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq, though he has since repudiated his vote.
"I opposed this war from the start. So you're about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue," said Obama, who was not in the Senate in 2002, and so was spared the politically dicey choice.
Edwards later acknowledged Obama -- as a way of swiping at front-runner Clinton, who again declined to say her vote to authorize war was a mistake.
"He deserves credit for being against this war from the beginning. He was right. I was wrong," said Edwards.
"I think it is important for anybody who seeks to be the next president of the United States, given the dishonesty that we've been faced with over the last several years, to be honest to the country."
Clinton, who has vowed to get troops home from Iraq if she is elected president, trained fire back at Bush and Republican candidates who have backed him, who will hold their own New Hampshire debate on Tuesday.
"This is George Bush's war. He is responsible for this war, he started the war, he mismanaged the war, he escalated the war and he refuses to end the war," Clinton said trying to minimize differences with her rivals on Iraq.
Long-shot candidate, Senator Joseph Biden voted to pass the budget, despite the political risk, saying he could not do otherwise with troops in harm's way.
"I knew the right political vote, but I tell you what: some things are worth losing elections over."
Candidates at the debate, hosted by CNN, also vowed to refocus the 'war on terror,' a day after officials said they had exposed a plot to blow up New York's main airport.
"All of us are glad that we haven't had a terrorist attack since 9/11, and I think there's some things that the Bush administration has done well," said Obama.
But ... we live in a more dangerous world, not a less dangerous world, partly as a consequence of this president's actions."
Clinton indirectly rebuked Edwards for his declaration that the 'war on terror' was simply a "bumper sticker" slogan that Bush used to justify controversial policies like the Iraq war and the Guantanamo Bay terror camp.
"I am a senator from New York. I have lived with the aftermath of 9/11," she said.
"I believe we are safer than we were. We are not yet safe enough."
Clinton basked in a new poll Sunday showing her as a solid front-runner, of a field also including New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, former Alaska senator Mike Gravel, Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, and veteran US senator Chris Dodd.
Forty-two percent of respondents backed Clinton, Obama had 27 percent and Edwards was third with 11 percent in the national poll. None of the other candidates in a distant chasing pack posted more than two percent.
But the picture appears much closer in individual state races, particularly in Iowa, where some polls have Edwards leading in the midwestern state on which he is pinning hopes of sending a jolt of momentum through his campaign.
Candidates also sparred on their different healthcare plans, education, and hit out at the Bush administration's policies on the environment, Iran and veterans health care.
Richardson suggested the United States should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, if China did not do more to crack down on genocide in Darfur.
Biden and Clinton also demanded a more intense effort to frustrate Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Baku Today
4 June 2007 |
Monday, 4 June 2007
2008 campaign
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