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Clinton, Obama clash in Ohio debate

Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama look out at the audience after a Democratic debate at the Wolstein Center on Cleveland State University campus in Ohio on Tuesday. PHOTO: EPA

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed over trade, health care and the war in Iraq in a crackling debate at close quarters one week before a pivotal number of primaries in the Democratic presidential race.

Charges of negative campaign tactics were high on the program, too, in Tuesday night's debate.

"Senator Obama has consistently said I would force people to have health care whether they can afford it or not," said Clinton, insisting it was not true.

Responding quickly, Obama said the former first lady had consistently claimed his plan "would leave 15 million people out ... I dispute that. I think it is inaccurate."

The tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback.

Clinton also said as far as she knew her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in Kenya, his father's homeland.

The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph on Monday and said, without substantiation, that it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers."

"We have no evidence where it came from," Clinton said, making clear that's not the kind of behavior she wants in her campaign.

"I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo," Obama said.

The two rivals, the only survivors of a grueling primary season, sat about 30cm apart at a table on stage at Cleveland State University. It was the 20th debate of the campaign, 10 months to the day after the first.

Both Obama and Clinton were on the receiving end of pointed questions from Tim Russert of NBC News, one of two moderators for the event.

Asked whether he was waffling on his pledge of agreeing to take federal funds for the fall campaign, Obama said he was still contesting the primaries.

"If I am the nominee I will sit down with John McCain and make sure we come up with a system that is fair to both sides," he said.

The equivalent question to Clinton concerned the income tax returns that she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, file jointly.

"I will release my tax returns," Clinton said, if she becomes the Democratic nominee, adding that she might do so "even earlier," but not before Tuesday's primary.

The rivals also debated the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico that is wildly unpopular with working-class workers whose votes are critical in any Democratic primary in Ohio.

Neither one said they were ready to withdraw from the pact, although both said they would use the threat of withdrawal to pressure Mexico to make changes.

On the war, both denounced US President George W. Bush's record on Iraq, then restated long-held disagreements over which of them was more opposed.

Obama also sought to distance himself from an endorsement from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Chicago-based controversial former leader of the black Muslim group who has made many anti-Semitic comments in the past.

Obama said he had not sought the endorsement, and that he had denounced the remarks.

Also see: Conservatives backing Obama? The times they are a-changin'
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