Clinton, Obama reach new level of rancor
In the Democratic debate in South Carolina, they attack each other's credibility as Edwards offers a less divisive tone.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Their debate truce obliterated in a blizzard of recriminations, Democratic candidates for president on Monday questioned one another's honesty and fitness for the White House in a televised confrontation notable for its nasty tone.
The harshness of their exchanges was an odd coda to a day in which the Democrats paid tribute to the nonviolent movement propelled by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was celebrated Monday and in whose honor the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and CNN sponsored the two-hour session.
The bitterness was particularly acute between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who belittled each other as if opening their opposition-research files and flinging out the contents. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards forced his way into the debate at several points as if to remind voters of a calmer, less divisive option.
The sharpest exchange came near the opening of the debate, when Obama was asked to respond to criticism by Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that the Illinois senator's economic stimulus proposal doesn't add up. Obama tersely denied it, leading Clinton to mock his comments.
"Your record and what you say does matter," Clinton told Obama. "And when it comes to a lot of the issues that are important in this race, it is sometimes difficult to understand what Sen. Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that's not what he meant."
Clinton went on to describe Obama as saying that "he really liked the ideas of the Republicans over the last 10-15 years." Actually, he had told interviewers in Nevada several days ago that Republicans had cornered the market in ideas for much of that time -- but he had not endorsed them.
In a brutal back-and-forth of interruptions, Obama replied:
"You just said that I complimented the Republican ideas. That is not true."
He pointed to his background as a community organizer during those years to contrast himself with Clinton.
"What I said," Obama told her, "and I will provide you with the quote, what I said is that Ronald Reagan was a transformative public figure because he was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda, an agenda that I objected to, because while I was working on those streets, watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart."
