Democratic front-runner Barack Obama was repeatedly thrown on the defensive last night in a television debate that spotlighted campaign gaffes, his association with a controversial former pastor and a '60s radical, and his reluctance to wear a flag pin in his lapel.
Obama described those as "manufactured" issues and tried to fend off criticism of his recent gaffe about "bitter" small-town Americans by turning it into an attack on Hillary Clinton. The overall tone of the debate was civil and far less heated than recent charges by both candidates at campaign events.
Obama said Clinton had "beat to death" his "mangled up" remarks about hard-hit towns. He accused her of having "learned the wrong lesson" from the personal attacks that have been levied against her over the years, "because she's adopting the same tactics."
"That's politics," said Obama. He said it was a mistake "to be obsessed with these kinds of errors" and trumped-up issues that distract the public's attention from the need to get U.S. troops out of Iraq and improve the economy.
But Clinton, who trails in the delegate count and is hoping for a strong winning streak in the closing primaries to help her gain the nomination, took issue with that. She said Republicans "are pretty shrewd about what it takes to win" and had already jumped on Obama's gaffe.
Obama told wealthy supporters in San Francisco this month that embittered residents of hard-hit Pennsylvania and Midwest towns "cling to guns or religion or anti- pathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Clinton also used the nearly two-hour debate at the National Constitution Center to pound Obama over his ties to William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground in the late 1960s and early '70s. "This is an issue that certainly the Republicans will be raising, and it goes to this larger set of concerns about how we are going to run against John McCain," she said.
But under questioning from moderator George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Clinton said she believed that Obama could win in November, refuting an argument that she had reportedly made in private to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
"Yes, yes, yes," she said. "Now, I think that I can do a better job."
The first debate since February brought to the surface a number of highly publicized developments.
