Leading Democrats Joust In Debate

By PATRICK HEALY The New York Times

Published: Jun 4, 2007

The three leading Democratic candidates engaged in their most spirited clash of the 2008 presidential campaign in a debate Sunday night, challenging one another about cutting off money for the Iraq war and about voting to authorize military action in the first place.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina assailed Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama by name for "standing quiet" on the recent Iraq war spending bill and not insisting on a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops. Clinton and Obama ultimately voted against the bill because it lacked the timetable Edwards wanted.

"They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote, but there is a difference between leadership and legislating," Edwards said during the debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

Asked to "name names" by the debate moderator, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, Edwards said: "Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama did not say anything about how they were going to vote until they appeared on the floor of the Senate and voted."

With that, Obama, and to a lesser extent Clinton, pushed back aggressively against Edwards, and in doing so gave viewers a first opportunity to size up the rivals' contrasting positions and political styles.

Obama said he thinks it was "important to lead," then took a shot at Edwards for being, as a senator in 2002, a full-throated advocate of military threats against Iraq and a supporter of the Senate resolution that year authorizing military force.

"John, the fact is, is that I opposed this war from the start. So you are about 4 1/2 years late on leadership on this issue," said Obama, who has campaigned on his firm opposition to the war since 2002.

Five other Democratic candidates participated in the debate, but the sponsors of the debate, which was televised on CNN and on New Hampshire television, kept the toughest questions focused on Obama, Edwards and Clinton.