WASHINGTON — A seven-hour parade of presidential candidates Wednesday offered the latest opportunity for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama -- who have dominated the spotlight in the Democratic race -- to square off in direct appeals to powerful potential supporters.
Clinton seemed to best Obama at a forum sponsored by the International Assn. of Fire Fighters, winning repeated cheers, whistles and applause.
Throughout the morning and into late afternoon, Republicans as well as Democrats spoke to the gathering. Democratic Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson each could leave heartened by the enthusiasm they generated. So too could former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
But for many, the focus was on Clinton, the senator from New York, and Obama, the senator from Illinois.
William Taylor, a firefighter from Marlboro, Mass., summed up the face-off, saying, "Hillary pretty much blew the crowd away."
Part of her success stemmed from tailoring her speech, more so than Obama, to some of the union's specific concerns.
The event marked the second consecutive day at which the two went head-to-head. On Tuesday, each courted participants at a Washington meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The rank-and-file members of the firefighters union are almost evenly divided between Republicans (about 42%) and Democrats (about 40%), according to the group's president, Harold Schaitberger.
But leaders of the union, which has about 3,000 locals nationwide, played a prominent role as a Democratic power broker in the 2004 campaign.
While many labor organizations embraced former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in the early stages of the Democratic nomination process, firefighters wearing their union's gold-and-black jackets showed up en masse at rallies in Iowa for Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the eventual nominee.
The war in Iraq has been a central theme in speeches aimed at wooing the union members, especially among the current crop of Democratic presidential candidates.
Schaitberger said that based on surveys by the union, attitudes among its members toward the war have shifted dramatically. In 2004, he said, more than 70% of the members supported the U.S. role in Iraq. Now, he said, 75% favored either immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, a drawdown based on a specific timetable, or a redeployment of military forces elsewhere in the region.
