DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Democratic presidential contenders used a debate before an Iowa audience yesterday to try to buttress their rallying call for changing the country's direction as they questioned Sen. Barack Obama's experience and argued over how best to leave Iraq.
"To prepare for this debate, I rode in the bumper cars at the State Fair," Obama said as he defended his foreign policy declarations on the failed "conventional thinking that has become the habit in Washington."
With opinion polls indicating that Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are bunched at the top in Iowa, the 90-minute debate on ABC's This Week held at Drake University provided the eight contenders an opportunity to launch into the campaign's more intensive phase leading up to the state's caucuses in January.
Clinton initially tried to walk away from her previous criticism of Obama over the Illinois lawmaker's vow that he would meet despotic foreign leaders without precondition, saying she is "running on my own qualifications and experience." But when reminded that she had called Obama's pledge "naive," Clinton said he was wrong to "give away the bargaining chip" of personal presidential meetings.
"Words mean something in campaigns," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, calling Obama's position "irresponsible."
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware said he stood by his earlier criticism of Obama that the presidency doesn't lend itself to "on-the-job training." Rather than adopting a Pakistan policy, Biden said, the United States has adopted a "bad policy" to deal only with Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration, sought to spin questions about Obama and Hillary Clinton in his favor.
"I think that Senator Obama does represent change. Senator Clinton has experience," Richardson said. "Change and experience - with me, you get both."
Obama's rivals chided him for making foreign policy pronouncements based on hypothetical situations. He has said that he would authorize a unilateral strike against al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden if there was actionable intelligence and Pakistan's government refused to act. He also has said he would not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances against terrorists in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
