Clinton Hammers Obama in Debate

Hillary Clinton tonight hammered Barack Obama on his commitment to universal health care and his grasp of foreign policy using a last debate before a set of crucial primaries to try to expose her opponent's potential flaws.

Following 11 straight primary wins for Obama, tonight's debate was seen as critical to Clinton's chances of reviving her campaign for the Democratic nomination and she came out swinging. However, her attacks at times seemed more flailing than focused.

After so many debates, there was little that was new tonight. However, Clinton came the closest she ever has to date to expressing contrition for her 2002 vote authorizing war on Iraq. She acknowledged she wished she had not cast the vote.

The contentious start set the stage for a 16-minute exchange on health care, which saw Clinton repeatedly speaking over the presenters to accuse Obama of failing to provide coverage to all Americans in his health care proposals.

"It would be as though Franklin Roosevelt said, let's make Social Security voluntary. That's, you know - that's - let's let everybody get in it if they can afford it. Or if President Johnson said, let's make Medicare voluntary," Clinton said.

But in what was perhaps a sign of the high stakes for Clinton, tonight's attack seemed somewhat desperate. Amid raising substantive points on such issues as health care, the Nafta free trade agreement and mastery of world events, she betrayed peevishness and self-pity.

She accused Obama's campaign of producing misleading campaign literature, and said the US media had treated her unfairly. Later on, she teamed with the moderator to increase the pressure on Obama to disavow the pastor of his Chicago church who has links with Louis Farrakhan.

For Obama, who has been cutting into Clinton's lead in the opinion polls ahead of next week's contests in Texas, Ohio and other states, there was comparatively little pressure to deliver a knockout punch.

While Clinton was focused on showing up the differences with her opponent, Obama's demeanor was relaxed and conciliatory. He repeatedly noted points of agreement with Clinton and praised her as an able senator.

When Clinton once again accused him of lacking substance to back up his soaring rhetoric, Obama responded mildly. "I am not interested in talk," he said. "I would not be running if I wasn't absolutely convinced that I can put an economic agenda forward that is going to provide them with health care, is going to make college more affordable, and is going to get them the kinds of help that they need not to solve all of their problems, but at least to be able to achieve the American dream."

Clinton did not have the luxury to appear relaxed. Her campaign has cast the next set of primaries as a last stand. If she cannot extract wins in Ohio and Texas next week - by convincing voters she is prepared to fight for their economic interests - Clinton may well be out of the race.

Polls this week suggest Clinton's once imposing lead over Obama in Ohio has evaporated. She now leads by as little as five or six points in the state; the two are in a dead heat in Texas.

The pressure was telling - as well as the duration of this contest.Tonight's debate was the 20th such encounter between Obama and Clinton, and there were signs that they were long past the point of tolerating each other's company.

A petulant Clinton complained that she was always asked the first question in debates, and then mentioned a skit on Saturday Night Live sending up the American media's soft spot for Obama.

Obama, on a number of occasions, seemed to smirk or laugh as Clinton was speaking.

But despite Clinton's claims of favoritism to Obama, her opponent also came in for tough questioning from the moderator, Tim Russert, about whether he would live up to a written pledge to accept public financing of his general election campaign.

Obama faced even tougher questioning about Louis Farrakhan. Although Obama said repeatedly he disavowed Farrakhan's anti-semitic views, Clinton egged on the moderator, Tim Russert, for Obama to issue an even more strenuous disavowal. "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," Obama said to applause.