Candidates lower temperature in debate; Clinton says she's sorry for Bosnia exaggeration

Thursday 17th April, 05:46 PM JST

WASHINGTON —

The Democratic candidates took some of the heat out of what had become an increasingly bitter presidential campaign as Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged in a nationally televised debate that Barack Obama could beat Republican John McCain in the November election.

On his part, front-runner Obama said Clinton should not be judged for exaggerated remarks about her trip to Bosnia.

But Clinton, who has been struggling to stop her rival’s drive toward their party’s nomination, refused to let up Wednesday night on the Illinois senator’s comments that small-town Americans had grown bitter over economic difficulties and were clinging to religion and guns.

Obama holds a sizable—perhaps insurmountable—lead in delegates with just 10 primary and caucus contests remaining after Tuesday’s critical Pennsylvania vote. Clinton needs to win by a large margin there to keep her candidacy alive.

The senators—Clinton of New York and Obama of Illinois—are running rough-and-tumble campaigns for the Democratic nomination and have attacked one another with increasingly personal criticism.

Clinton, apparently trying to put the Bosnia issue behind her, said she was sorry she “said some things I knew not to be the case.”

On at least three occasions Clinton told campaign audiences that she landed in Tuzla 12 years ago under sniper fire and had to run to waiting vehicles for safety. Television pictures of the event showed Clinton walking calmly to a waiting group of people and no evidence of gun fire.

Obama said she “deserves the right to make some errors. I’ve made some too.” And he decried the tendency of modern-day politics to judge candidates according to the gaffes they make on the campaign trail.

He, too, has struggled in recent days to overcome the controversy caused by his comments about small town despondency.

Obama said he was attempting to say that because voters feel ignored by government, “they end up being much more concerned about votes around things like guns where traditions have been passed on from generation to generation. And those are incredibly important to them.”

Clinton shot back: “People don’t cling to their traditions on hunting and guns” out of frustration with their government. She charged that Obama had a fundamental misunderstanding on the role of religion and faith.

While both candidates said they believed either of them could defeat McCain, they declined to offer their rival the vice presidential slot.

Clinton at first sidestepped the question about Obama’s ability to win, but when asked a second time, she replied, “Yes, yes, yes.”

Obama said, “Absolutely and I’ve said so before”—a not-so-subtle response to frequent claims by Clinton’s aides that he could lead the Democrats to defeat in the fall.

On offering one another the vice presidency, Obama said he thought “very highly of Senator Clinton’s record” but that it was “premature at this point to talk about who the vice presidential candidates will be.”

Clinton said: “I’m going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that one of us takes the oath of office next January. I think that has to be the overriding goal.”

Both candidates vowed again to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. If elected, Clinton said she would immediately call together her military leadership and develop a plan to begin withdrawing forces within 60 days.

Obama said he would live up to his pledge to pull troops out within a year of taking office, realizing he would have to rely on the tactical advice of the military leadership.

On Iran, they agreed the United States should respond forcefully if it obtains nuclear weapons and uses them against Israel.

“An attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation by the United States,” said Clinton.

Obama said, “The U.S. would take appropriate action.”

Neither rival was willing to say they would ask President George W Bush to serve in any capacity after he leaves office. Obama volunteered he would be “more likely to ask the advice of the current president’s father. He said that, as president, George H. W. Bush had presided over a “wise foreign policy” at the time the Cold War was ending.

The debate was the 21st of the campaign for the nomination, an epic struggle that could last weeks or even months longer.

Clinton’s lead in Pennsylvania has narrowed, according to a new Franklin & Marshall College poll. The survey, released on Wednesday, showed Clinton with a 46-40 percentage point advantage over Obama. The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus 5.1%.

In March the same poll showed her ahead by 16 points, 51-35%. The latest poll was conducted April 8-13 among 367 likely Democratic voters.

A new Gallup Poll shows Obama with an 8 percentage-point lead among Democrats nationally over Clinton, 50-42. More importantly, he has a solid lead in delegates who will choose the nominee at the party’s convention in August. The poll was conducted April 13-15 and surveyed 1,282 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters.

Going into the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton trails Obama 1,643-1,504. Pennsylvania is the largest state still to vote and 158 delegates are at stake.

Because Democratic state contests are not winner-take-all, it is statistically extremely unlikely for Clinton to overcome Obama’s lead in the so-called pledged delegate count.

Neither candidate will be able to clinch the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination without the approval of the party’s nearly 800 superdelegates. Of that group, 254 have said they back Clinton, and 229 are supporting Obama. His overall delegate lead includes the committed superdelegates.

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7 Comments

adaydream at 09:40 PM JST - 17th April

It was a good debate. Both candidates are ready to step into the office president today. I'm enjoying the debates. This may be the last debate before the convention.

I'm sure the republicans will try to stir up garbage, but Obama and Clinton are very amiable with each other, not the fighting and bitching that would make the republicans happy.
OssanULTRA at 12:06 AM JST - 18th April

Sorry Hillary. I'm still waiting for an apology from you over the Whitewater papers. Oh and that vast right wing conspiracy comment too. Hillary is elected would not only be the first female US President but also the president most likely to be consistently wrong in her decisions comments and beliefs. You go girl.
RomeoRamenII at 12:08 AM JST - 18th April

"It was a good debate."

Debate? You call that a debate? Maybe if you're used to reading the National Inquirer you might consider that monstrosity a debate.

But if you were looking for a substantive discussion on the issues that concern all Americans such as the economy, oil/gas, foreclosure, the increasing demise of the middle class, the war, health, the environment, etc., then this spectacle of got'cha questioning by these two smug Grand Inquisitors, Charlie Gibson and George Stepanopolis, fell far short of what is expected.

For about the first 50 minutes of the 90+ minute "debate', these two dueling idiots (Gibson & Stephanopolis), chose to harp on diversionary topics. One or two questions (at the most) on "Rev." Wright, the Bosnia/sniper comments, would have been appropriate-enough. But engineering it so that the real issues aren't discussed at any depth or at all, is despicable and at the least, disingenuous on ABC's part.

Gibson & Stephanopolis are not reporters, but are shills of their corporation owners ... in this case, Disney. So, I'm not surprised.

But I am nauseated how low journalism has sunk to placate their corporate owners and anesthetize the American public with cheap shots and diversionary tactics.

But I understand that these "news corporations" may have profit-related concerns and other issues if (cough) one of the two democratic candidates are elected in November.

RR
RomeoRamenII at 12:18 AM JST - 18th April

"I'm sure the republicans will try to stir up garbage"

Heh, it's always the Republicans fault no matter what the dems do. The way barack and hillary have been running their campaigns must be the Republicans fault, too.

RR
Madverts at 01:03 AM JST - 18th April

ramen.

Admit it.

You're petrified.

Heh, I don't some people are going to make it to election day with their undies intact.
Madverts at 01:12 AM JST - 18th April

"Heh, I don't think some people
adaydream at 02:04 AM JST - 18th April

Maybe if they had called each other bitch or blacky or spat on each other as they exuded threats of kidnapping and mayhem it would have been a wonderful debate.

But...

I got some answers and I also have some more kwestions that I want answered now. But I liked it.