WASHINGTON — As children sleep safely in their beds, a menace is set loose in the world -- and a phone rings in the White House. "Your vote will decide who answers the call," says a narrator, "whether it's someone . . . tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world."
In her newest television ad, released Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton shows who should answer the 3 a.m. call: She is pictured picking up the phone, confident and businesslike. Implied is that Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, would be less prepared for a moment of crisis.
It is the type of attack that Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, is hearing from sides. As he establishes himself as the Democratic front-runner, both Clinton and leading Republicans have settled on national security as his biggest point of vulnerability.
In recent days, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, has accused Obama of misunderstanding the role of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and President Bush has implicitly scolded Obama for saying he would meet with foreign dictators such as Cuba's Raul Castro.
Clinton has criticized Obama for failing to convene a subcommittee he leads in order to review Afghanistan policy, even though he often accuses the Bush administration of "taking its eye off the ball" in that Central Asian country to focus on Iraq. Obama has responded that he only became chairman in early 2007, as the presidential campaign was beginning.
On the campaign trail Friday, Clinton questioned Obama's qualifications to be commander in chief and accused him of abandoning the stand he took in 2002 when he delivered a speech opposing the invasion of Iraq.
"There's a big difference between giving speeches about national security and giving orders as commander in chief," said the New York senator, surrounded by retired military leaders during an appearance in Waco, Texas. "There's a big difference between delivering a speech at an antiwar rally as a state senator and picking up that phone in the White House at 3 a.m. in the morning to deal with an international crisis."
Clinton's sharp words marked a turn in the Democratic race, which had focused largely on domestic matters such as healthcare and job creation in the run-up to Tuesday's crucial primary elections in Texas and Ohio.
Her new strategy, coupled with the heightened attacks from Republicans, also foreshadows a continued line of attack against Obama, should he win the nomination.
