United States Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton questioned each other’s sincerity and leadership on national security and the economy on Friday as they geared up for the next tests in a gruelling struggle for the White House.
Clinton told audiences in Wyoming it was time to end the Iraq war that she backed in 2002, saying: ”There is no military solution and it is time to bring our sons and daughters home.”
The New York senator continued her attack on rival Obama. ”If you would prefer solutions over soundbites, if you believe we need to have reality as opposed to rhetoric about what we get from our next president, then I need you to go to those caucuses and stand up for me,” Clinton urged voters.
But at an earlier stop in Mississippi, which holds a primary on Tuesday, Clinton renewed hints that she could team up with Obama on a joint White House ticket against Republican John McCain in November’s election.
Obama continued to highlight Clinton’s early support for the war, now in its sixth year, and his opposition.
”It was because of George Bush, with an assist from Hillary Clinton and John McCain, that we entered into this war, a war that should have never been authorised, a war that should have never been waged,” Obama said. ”I’ve been against it in 2002, 2003, ‘4, ‘5, ‘6, ‘7, ‘8. And I will bring this war to an end in 2009,” the Illinois senator added.
Obama, who has stressed the need to elevate political discourse and end partisan bickering, accepted the resignation of foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, who called Clinton ”a monster” during an interview with a British newspaper.
Clinton and aides reacted more strongly to another comment by Power, in a BBC interview, playing down Obama’s promise to withdraw troops quickly from Iraq as just a ”best-case scenario” that he would revisit as president.
”While Senator Obama campaigns on this plan to end the war, his top advisers tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president,” Clinton told reporters in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe disavowed Power’s comment on Iraq, telling reporters Obama’s promise to begin an immediate withdrawal from Iraq once he occupies the White House is ”a rock-solid commitment”.
The two Democratic senators have stepped up their attacks on each other as they settle in for a long fight for the nomination to face McCain.
Clinton dodged a knockout blow from Obama on Tuesday with crucial wins in the big states of Ohio and Texas, but Obama maintains an almost insurmountable lead in the pledged delegates who will help decide the nominee at the August Democratic convention.
Neither Obama nor Clinton is likely to reach the 2 025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination without the help of some of the 796 ”superdelegates”, party officials and insiders free to back any candidate.
Joint ticket in November
For the second time since Tuesday’s victories, Clinton suggested she was open to the prospect of teaming up with Obama as presidential and vice-presidential candidates in November.
”I’ve had a lot of people say, ‘Well, I wish I could vote for both of you.’ Well, that might be possible someday. But first I need your vote on Tuesday,” she said in Mississippi.
Clinton and Obama headed to Wyoming on Friday to campaign before the western state’s contest on Saturday, when 12 delegates are at stake. In Mississippi on Tuesday, 33 more delegates will be at stake.
Both Democrats jumped on a dismal US jobs report to condemn President George Bush’s economic policies. Obama also took a swipe at Clinton and McCain.
Americans, he said, ”can’t afford John McCain’s promise of four more years of the very same failed Bush economic policies that have failed us for the last eight, and they can’t afford another politician who promises solutions but won’t change the divisive, lobbyist-driven politics in Washington”.
The Labour Department reported the US economy lost 63 000 jobs last month, after 22 000 jobs were lost in January. Only 41 000 jobs were created in December — half the 82 000 originally estimated.
McCain, an Arizona senator, told a town-hall meeting in Atlanta the economy ”is not in the condition we want it to be” and said lowering taxes and reducing regulation would stimulate growth.
The comments about Clinton by Power, who advised Obama on foreign policy for 14 months, were published in the Scotsman on Friday.
”She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything,” Power was quoted by the newspaper as saying of Clinton before her victories in Ohio and Texas.
”Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign.” — Reuters