Democratic White House contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed angrily in a South Carolina debate yesterday, accusing each other of shading the truth and drawing a rebuke from rival John Edwards for "squabbling".
With tensions rising in the Democratic battle for the presidential nomination, Obama and Clinton exchanged harsh words several times, cutting each other off and talking over each other in the most heated debate of a heavily contested campaign.
Clinton was forced to defend her husband's role in her campaign against her irritated rival for the Democratic nomination.
Obama seemed particularly frustrated with former president Bill Clinton's role in his wife's campaign, accusing him of twisting the truth to aid his wife's presidential effort.
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Face off: Last night's exchange between Obama and Clinton got personal
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"I'm here. He's not," Mrs Clinton snapped back during a televised debate.
"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama, the Illinois senator, countered.
Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn, an influential black leader in South Carolina, suggested yesterday that Bill Clinton tone down his rhetoric.
Questioned about it, Hillary Clinton said her husband was "a tremendous asset. .. I believe that this campaign is not about our spouses. It is about us. It is about each of us individually."
Obama said he would expect the ex-president to campaign for his wife, but "I have been troubled ... (by) the degree to which my record is not accurately portrayed."
Obama questioned Clinton's truthfulness when she attacked his recent campaign-trail statements on Iraq, former Republican President Ronald Reagan's ideas and spending.
"One of the things that's happened during the course of this campaign, there's a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate," said Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president.
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Obama attacked former president Bill Clinton's role in his wife's campaign
Obama claimed sometimes he could not tell who he was running against - Hillary or Bill (above)
With the holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as a backdrop, and the South Carolina vote looming, the candidates also addressed questions of racial equality.
Clinton and third Democratic candidate John Edwards compared their records on helping to alleviate poverty, while Obama was asked if he agreed with the famed black novelist Toni Morrison who dubbed Bill Clinton "the first black president."
Obama praised the former president's "affinity" with black people but also drew laughs.
"I would have to investigate more, Bill's dancing abilities and some of this other stuff before I accurately judged whether he was, in fact, a brother," Obama said.
Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first U.S. woman president, said it was hard to debate Obama.
"It is very difficult having a straight-up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," she told Obama.
"It is sometimes difficult to understand what Senator Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that's not what he meant," she said.
"This kind of squabbling, how many children is this going to get health care," Edwards asked in the three-way debate in a Myrtle Beach theater shown on CNN.
Clinton and Obama are dueling for the Democratic nomination in the November election to succeed President George Bush.
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 nominating convention delegate than she.
Edwards, who won South Carolina during his failed 2000 presidential bid, finished a distant third in the last two contests but says he will push on in the race.
When Clinton said "I didn't talk about Reagan," Obama responded: "Hillary, we just had the tape. You said that I complimented the Republican ideas. That is not true."
The Democrats did find some things to agree on. They said Bush's proposed $145 billion economic stimulus plan was inadequate to combat a potential U.S. recession.
"The president's proposed stimulus package is not adequate," said Clinton, who has proposed her own $110 billion plan. "It is too little, too late and it doesn't give enough money to the people who are hardest hit by the increased costs of energy and everything else."
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Candidate John Edwards, right, fought to stay in the debate with Obama and Clinton
"I'm sure that can be arranged," Clinton joked.
Obama told the former first lady during last 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".
The two rivals, joined by 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.
The Democratic electorate in South Carolina is expected to be roughly 50 per cent black, an evident advantage for Obama in a historic race that matches a mixed-race man against a woman.
The debate was sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and CNN. It came as the two campaigns continued to complain about dirty politics and disenfranchisement of voters in last Saturday's Nevada caucuses.
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."
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The audience watching last night's televised debate
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.
Hillary Clinton, who was close with the Walton family, served on the Wal-Mart board from 1986 to 1992. In 2006, her Senate campaign returned $5,000 to the company's political action committee while citing differences with company policies.
A blind trust held by Clinton and her husband, the former president, included stock holdings in Wal-Mart. They liquidated the contents of the blind trust in 2007 because of investments that could pose conflicts of interest or prove embarrassing as she ran for president.
Chicago real estate developer and fast food magnate Antoin "Tony" Rezko was a longtime fundraiser for Obama. Prosecutors have charged him with fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering in what they allege was a scheme to get campaign money and payoffs from firms seeking to do business before two state boards.
Obama's campaign said Saturday it was giving to charities more than $40,000 (£20,000) from donors linked to Rezko. In 2006, when charges against Rezko were made public, Obama gave $11,500 (£5,750) in Rezko contributions to charities.
Often speaking over each other, Obama and Clinton bitterly complained about each other's legislative records. Obama questioned why the New York senator had voted for a bankruptcy bill that she later said she was glad hadn't passed, and Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" on dozens of occasions while a member of the Illinois legislature.
"Senator Obama, it's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," Clinton said to loud boos. "On issue after issue, you voted present ... Whenever someone raises that, there's always some sort of explanation."
Obama accused Clinton of playing loose with the facts and saying anything to get elected, while Edwards joined Clinton in criticising Obama for the "present" votes.
"Why would you over 100 times vote present?" Edwards pointedly challenged Obama. "What if I had just not shown up to vote on things that really mattered to this country? It would have been safe for me politically. It would have been the careful and cautious thing to do, but I have a responsibility to take a position even when it has political consequences for me."
Obama said most of his present votes did not have political consequences but were because of technical or legal concerns.
"Don't question, John, that on issue after issue that is important to the American people, I haven't followed. I have led," Obama said. "Present" votes are common in the Illinois legislature, and they have the same impact as a "no" vote. Legislators use them for a variety of reasons, from registering doubts about a measure's legality to avoiding a firm position.
Clinton and Obama square off in nasty debate over race, leadership - and Bill | the Daily Mail
Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama square off in debate over race, leadership and Bill
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