Clinton fights tense, frustrating debate with Obama

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sharply criticized Sen. Barack Obama on health care, NAFTA, Iraq and his political tactics Tuesday night in one of her most pugnacious debate performances, as she fought for momentum before four potentially decisive nominating contests next Tuesday.

Obama, pursuing a front-runner's strategy of nonconfrontation after winning 11 straight contests, defended his positions and views, and said he and his team had not "whined" about the Clinton camp's attacks on him.

The debate was the final one before the March 4 contests in Rhode Island, Vermont, Ohio and Texas, the last two states ones the Clinton camp has labeled as must-win if she is to keep her campaign alive.

Questions about which approach Clinton would take to sway voters were quickly answered as she immediately confronted Obama. She insisted on responding to virtually every point that Obama made, often interrupting the debate moderators, Brian Williams and Tim Russert of NBC, as they tried to move on.

Unlike their debate Thursday, this exchange had a far more belligerent edge. Clinton did not nod along as Obama made standard Democratic points, as she has been known to do. She was more apt to call him "Senator Obama" than the friendlier "Barack." She did not smile at him.

At one point, after the moderators asked her a series of pointed questions, Clinton vented her frustrations with news coverage of Obama, citing a "Saturday Night Live" sketch from last weekend that portrayed debate moderators as fawning fans of Obama.

"Can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time?" Clinton said, to a mix of boos and applause. "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."

(Indeed, in their two other one-on-one debates, Clinton was asked to answer the first question and then was asked more questions overall, though only slightly. In other debates before the Democratic field narrowed, she received the first question at six of the 10 most recent events.)

The tenor of the debate was set from the beginning, when the moderators played clips of Clinton praising Obama at the Thursday debate and then declaring "Shame on you, Barack Obama" on Saturday, after his campaign sent fliers to voters in Ohio suggesting that she viewed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as a boon.

NAFTA is hugely unpopular in Ohio, and the two candidates have records of praising and criticizing it, though Clinton never used the word "boon." In some of her strongest language to date, she said at the debate she would "opt out" of the trade deal if Canada and Mexico did not renegotiate it.

Saying Obama had sent mailings that were "very disturbing to me," Clinton defended her newly aggressive tone: "I think it's important that you stand up for yourself."

Obama denied misleading voters through the NAFTA flier or another one about her health-care plan's mandate that would require all Americans to buy insurance.

Clinton criticized the health- care flier. "What I find regrettable is that in Senator Obama's mailing that he has sent out across Ohio, it is almost as though the health-insurance companies and the Republicans wrote it."

Obama responded to the accusation, and for 16 minutes they engaged in a terse back-and-forth over their health plans.

Their plans are similar; they both seek to make health insurance more affordable, and both have universal coverage as their goal. But the Clinton campaign has argued that 15 million Americans would go uncovered under Obama's plan, a number that relies on estimates by health-care experts but is difficult to pin down.

"Senator Clinton, her campaign at least, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us," Obama said. "We haven't whined about it."

Defending her support for a health-insurance mandate, Clinton said that without one, "It would be as though Franklin Roosevelt said let's make Social Security voluntary" or "if President Johnson said let's make Medicare voluntary."

Clinton stared steadily at Obama with pursed lips and a furrowed brow as he answered questions. She spoke forcefully at every turn, as she did while arguing she was the strongest Democrat to face the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"I will have a much better case to make on a range of the issues that, really, America must confront going forward, and will be able to hold my own and make the case for a change in policy that will be better for our country," she said.

Obama rested his chin on his hands and smiled as Clinton criticized him on his experience in foreign policy and said their views on Iraq had been virtually identical in the Senate. When she finished speaking, Obama began a stern criticism of her record on Iraq and her own judgment calls.

"Senator Clinton often says that she is ready on Day 1, but in fact she was ready to give in to George Bush on Day 1 on this critical issue," Obama said of the Iraq war. "So the same person that she criticizes for having terrible judgment — and we can't afford to have another one of those — in fact she facilitated and enabled this individual to make a decision that has been strategically damaging to the United States of America."

The first half-hour of the debate, which was held at Cleveland State University and broadcast by MSNBC and Ohio networks, focused heavily on tactics, with Clinton on the defensive. For instance, she said she did not believe her campaign was responsible for distributing a photograph of Obama wearing a robe and a white turban in a 2006 trip to Africa. The image surfaced Monday on The Drudge Report.

"I certainly know nothing about it," Clinton said. "That's not the kind of behavior that I condone."

As the debate drew to a close, Obama was asked whether he would reject the support of Louis Farrakhan, the longtime leader of the Nation of Islam, who announced last weekend that he would back Obama's presidential bid.

"I obviously can't censor him," Obama said. "It is not support that I sought."

Asked why he had taken steps to back away from his pledge to accept public financing in a general election, Obama said he had yet to make up his mind and would sit down with McCain "to make sure we have a system that is fair for both sides."

Yet he left open the door to not taking public financing, a departure from a statement he made a year ago.

Asked about the $5 million loan she made to her campaign, Clinton dismissed suggestions that outside groups — or foreign concerns that have paid her husband for speeches — were funding her campaign.

"The American people who support me are bankrolling my campaign, that's obvious," said Clinton, who added that she intended to release her tax returns at some point. Asked if she would do it before voting Tuesday, she demurred: "I'm a little busy right now."