CHICAGO — Hoping to cut into her widening lead, top-tier Democratic presidential candidates used a testy debate here Tuesday to cast New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as beholden to powerful Washington lobbyists and too compromised to revamp healthcare and make changes the party wants to see once George W. Bush leaves office.
The repeated swipes at Clinton came amid new polling that shows her consolidating her advantage to the point that, in an eight-person field, she is drawing support from nearly a majority of voters.
Again and again, whether the question concerned bridge safety or free trade, Clinton's main rivals tried to drive home a message that she is part of a Washington culture that is delivering results only for the most influential Americans.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, trailing Clinton by 36 points in the most recent USA Today/Gallup poll, said in reply to a question about the North American Free Trade Agreement, "the one thing you can count on is you will never see a picture of me on the front of Fortune magazine saying, 'I am the candidate that big corporate America is counting on.' "
Clinton appeared on the cover of the July issue of the magazine.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who trailed Clinton by 22 points in the same poll, made a reference to Clinton's comment in a recent debate that she would keep taking campaign money from paid lobbyists.
"Are we going to make certain that you have a voice in Washington, and not just those who are paying the big money in Washington?" he asked.
Clinton professed bemusement and said it was poor tactics for Democrats to fight among themselves. Yet at another point, she chided Obama for a speech last week in which he said that as president he might take military action inside Pakistan, a U.S. ally, to root out terrorists.
"I'm just taking it all in," Clinton said. "I've noticed in the last few days that a lot of the other campaigns have been using my name a lot. But I'm here because I think we need to change America. And it's not to get in fights with Democrats."
She added that "for 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine and I've come out stronger. So if you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl."
At that, the audience applauded.
The debate was sponsored by the AFL-CIO and attended by about 17,000 union members. In withering heat, the candidates answered questions from a stage sitting on the 10-yard line at Soldier Field. The event was broadcast on MSNBC.
