The Iraq war reemerged Thursday as a dividing line between the two major Democrats remaining in the presidential contest, as Barack Obama used a Los Angeles debate to argue he has the judgment to lead the nation out of war and Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted that she has the gravitas to do the same.
The debate, sponsored by The Times, CNN and Politico and held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, was the first one-on-one meeting between Clinton and Obama. It was also the last before Democrats in 22 states, including California, vote Tuesday.
Unlike their most recent session in South Carolina -- replete with mudslinging and insults -- Thursday's debate played out as if they were two talk show guests trading jokes as they worked around the edges of a number of domestic policies.
The gravest distinction came on the war, which loomed large as an issue as the presidential race began but has gradually diminished in the Democratic contests. With the war again the focus, the race reverted to the campaign's purest distillation: Clinton's experience against Obama's judgment.
As she has before, Clinton refused to apologize for voting in the fall of 2002 to give President Bush the authority to use military force against Saddam Hussein. At the time, Obama came out strongly against the war, so it looms as one of the key distinctions between the two. Their Senate votes on war-related funding since Obama was elected in 2004 have been similar.
"I think I made a reasoned judgment," Clinton said in defending the vote. Then she tried to pin the blame for the war on Bush: "Unfortunately, the person who actually got to execute the policy did not."
Twice Clinton insisted that it was time to focus on what the country would do "going forward" -- in effect, leaving behind the discussion over the war vote. She cited Sen. John McCain's criticism of Democratic desires to leave Iraq as proof that she meant to pull American troops out.
"It will be important, however, that our nominee be able to present both a reasoned argument against continuing our presence in Iraq and the necessary credentials and gravitas for commander-in-chief," she said. "That has to cross that threshold in the mind of every American voter."
Obama, however, insisted that Clinton's authorization vote defined who would run the strongest race for the White House in November.
