Democratic
rivals accused Hillary Clinton of being too cozy with lobbyists and
Wall Street Tuesday, but the party’s presidential front-runner
portrayed herself as a champion of working people and commonsense
policies, drawing cheers from a crowd of union activists.
Barack
Obama, running second to Clinton in most polls, leveled some of the
criticism but was forced to defend his own recent statements on
Pakistan during the 90-minute debate sponsored by the AFL-CIO at
Chicago’s Soldier Field.
The debate turned into the most
animated encounter of the Democratic campaign, suggesting that the
battle for the party’s nomination may be entering a new phase, one that
is likely to grow increasingly contentious after Labor Day.
The
candidates appeared far more willing to challenge one another directly,
and in more pointed language, than in previous debates.
Elbows
flew throughout the night, and the challengers appeared more eager to
mix it up, stoked perhaps by the enthusiasm of a large and boisterous
audience.
The debate over who has the best foreign policy
judgment continued as the circus came to town, with Barack Obama taking
punches from Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Chris Dodd.
But
Obama, playing an unfamiliar defense game with home field advantage on
a Soldier Field stage, kept returning to two central campaign themes to
inoculate himself against criticism:
Blaming Washington insiders and stressing his early objection to the Iraq war.
Edwards also raged against the establishment and gave Obama a run for the anti-Washington crown.
Nothing very subtle in this 96-minute exchange moderated by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.
Clinton
hit Obama in the belly over Obama getting trapped recently in answering
a hypothetical question about a nuclear attack on Pakistan and
announcing that he would, if there were actionable intelligence, send a
U.S. strike force into Pakistan to root out terrorists.
“I do not believe people running for president should engage in hypotheticals,” she said.
Without
naming Obama, she said it was a “very big mistake” to “telegraph” his
Pakistan move and “destabilize the Musharraf regime which is fighting
for its life.”
Clinton earned boos for saying what was on her
mind about Obama. “You can think big, but remember you shouldn’t always
say everything you think if you’re running for president, because it
has consequences across the world.”
But she was warmly received
as Girlfriend Clinton standing up against six men. After taking
incoming from Obama and Edwards, Clinton slipped into a serene state.
Asked to respond to the attacks, she said calmly, “I’m just taking it all in” while urging Democrats not to fight each other.
Referring
to her years wrangling the “vast right-wing conspiracy,” Clinton said,
“So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I’m your girl.”
And,
at a time Obama is trying to establish himself as a foreign policy
heavy, he misspoke when he called the leader of Canada a “president.”
Canada’s leader is a prime minister.
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