"When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation - the decision to invade Iraq - Senator Clinton got it wrong," Obama said.
"She didn't read the National Intelligence Estimates. I don't know what all that experience got her. Because I have the experience to know that when you have a National Intelligence Estimate and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says, `You should read this; this is why I voted against the war,' then you should probably read it."
Obama was referring to then-Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who was head of the committee in 2002, when the Senate voted to authorize military action against Iraq. Graham encouraged colleagues to read the intelligence report. Few did.
Clinton also did not give diplomacy a chance to work in Iraq, Obama charged, in one of his harshest critiques to date of her record, adding that she had not admitted "that her vote was a mistake or that it was even a vote for war."
The New York senator is scrambling to recover from 11 consecutive primary and caucus losses and has struggled to counter Obama's messages of hope and change. She has sharpened her attacks, accusing her rival of empty oratory.
Brenda Risacher, 54, who attended Clinton's first event in Westerville, echoed those charges.
"Obama is a showman - very theatrical," she said, adding that if Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Obama, she would not vote for him in the general election.
Clinton's campaign stops yesterday were part of an "88 counties in 88 hours" sprint across the state.
Speaking to reporters, Clinton's state director in Ohio, Robby Mook, pointed to a bevy of state leaders, including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who have endorsed the former first lady. Yet in recent contests, Clinton's support from the Democratic establishment has not proved a match for Obama's organization on the ground.
Clinton is under pressure to win the primaries in delegate-rich Texas and Ohio by wide margins. According to the latest polls, she has a slight lead over Obama in Ohio and is virtually tied with him in Texas. Voters in Vermont and Rhode Island also go to the polls tomorrow.
In an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation yesterday morning, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination in January, called the Texas and Ohio contests "D-Day."
"Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee," he said.
Richardson, one of the 796 superdelegates to the Democratic convention, has not endorsed a candidate and said yesterday that he was "legitimately torn."
Obama headed home to Chicago last night and plans to campaign in Texas today.
Louise Roug and Maria L. La Ganga write for the Los Angeles Times.
