Democrats' debate turns acrimonious

The Democratic presidential race grew increasingly acrimonious ahead of the pivotal South Carolina primary after front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama accused each other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain in a heated debate.

Republican White House candidates, meanwhile, focused on Florida where former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has pinned all hopes for his candidacy after staying out of the early contests in which his three main rivals split the spoils in contests that netted three different winners in six states.

The Democrats' debate on Monday night quickly devolved into an angry exchange between Clinton and Obama.

Obama told the former first lady in Monday night's debate that he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

Moments later, Clinton said that she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."

Obama seemed particularly irritated at former president Bill Clinton, whom the Illinois senator accused in absentia of uttering a series of distortions to aid his wife's presidential effort.

"I'm here. He's not," she said.

"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama said.

The two opponents, joined by former North Carolina senator John Edwards, debated at close quarters five days before the South Carolina primary -- and 15 days before the equivalent of a nationwide primary across 22 states that will go a long way toward settling the battle for the party's nomination.

Clinton was the national front-runner for months in the race, but Obama won the kick-off Iowa caucuses three weeks ago, knocking her off-stride. She recovered quickly, winning the New Hampshire primary in an upset, and on Saturday, won the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses, while Obama won one more delegate to the party's presidential nominating convention than she did.

Even in the superheated atmosphere of the primary, the statements and exchanges between Clinton and Obama were unusually acrimonious.

Obama suggested the Clintons were both practicing the kind of political tactics that had alienated voters.

"There was a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate," Obama said. "I think that part of what people are looking for right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."

Clinton countered: "I believe your record and what you say should matter."

Edwards, who badly trails his two rivals, tried to stay above the fray while pleading for equal time.

"Are there three people in this debate, not two?" he asked.

"We have got to understand, this is not about us personally. It's about what we are trying to do for this country," Edwards said to applause from the audience.

With the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, as a backdrop, the candidates also addressed questions of racial equality in the debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and CNN.

Early on in the debate, Clinton and Obama called for tax rebates for individuals to help with home heating and other short-term needs.

Meanwhile, the Republicans focused on the Jan. 29 contest in Florida, where the race remains wide open despite Arizona Senator John McCain's victories in South Carolina and New Hampshire. A Florida win would give the victor a whopping 57 delegates to the party's national convention and a huge jolt of energy in the run-up to Feb. 5.

McCain on Monday courted the influential Cuban vote in Miami, stressing that he would not lift the US's decades-old Cuba embargo and noting that some US prisoners-of-war in Vietnam, though not him, were tortured by Castro's agents.

The veteran senator hopes his personal and professional links to Florida, as well as his military background, will help him break out of the pack in a state that is home to a large number of veterans and active duty service members.

Almost immediately after the Republicans' Jan. 19 South Carolina primary, Giuliani and Mitt Romney, a Mormon millionaire and former Massachusetts governor, wasted no time in criticizing McCain. Their swipes were couched in economic terms, in line with recession worries that are dominating the race.

Giuliani attacked McCain for siding with Democrats in voting against Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Romney portrayed the Arizona senator as a consummate Washington insider. Only Mike Huckabee, the preacher-turned-politician, was gracious, congratulating McCain on a clean campaign.