On Iraq policy, there’s no debate

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Democratic presidential candidates largely set aside their differences here Thursday and presented a united front of opposition to President Bush and his Iraq policy, urging the president not to veto newly passed legislation that sets a timetable for beginning the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the conflict.

In their first debate of the 2008 campaign, the Democrats showed some disagreement over the issue of cutting off funding for the war and vied with one another to demonstrate their willingness to retaliate swiftly if the United States is attacked by terrorists.

But they found common ground in accusing Bush of making the country less safe and damaging U.S. relations abroad through foreign policy, and argued that the president is ignoring the will of the people by refusing to shift course dramatically in Iraq.

“The American people have spoken,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. “The Congress has voted, as of today, to end this war. And now we can only hope that the president will listen.”

The 90-minute debate covered a wide range of issues, including health care, global climate change and the recent Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on a late term abortion procedure – a decision critics have said could lay the foundation for overturning Roe v. Wade. Although public opinion shows support for the ban, the candidates uniformly criticized the court’s decision.

The debate appeared unlikely to alter the shape of the Democratic race, which has divided along two tiers, with Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina leading in polls and fundraising and well ahead of the other major candidates: Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. All more than held their own in the debate.

As the perceived front-runner, Clinton might have been seen as the likely target for attack, but the candidates largely avoided engaging one another directly.

The closest approximation to a direct engagement came when Edwards was asked whether he was specifically talking about Clinton when he has said the country wants a leader who is willing to admit mistakes.

“I think that’s a question for the conscience of anybody who voted for this war,” he said. “I mean, Senator Clinton and anyone else who voted for this war has to search themselves and decide whether they believe they’ve voted the right way.”

Clinton, who has consistently been forced to defend her vote for the war along the campaign trail, responded by saying what she has said before: “I take responsibility for my vote. Obviously, I did as good a job as I could at the time. It was a sincere vote based on the information available to me. And I’ve said many times that if I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.”

But if the leading candidates avoided going after one another, NBC anchor Brian Williams asked them probing questions about their own past statements and records, with Edwards quizzed about whether his campaign should have paid for $400 haircuts and about his role as a consultant to a hedge fund.

Edwards quickly agreed that having the campaign pay for the haircuts was a mistake that had been corrected, but he shifted the question to a potential conflict between his lifestyle and his advocacy of antipoverty programs.

“If the question is … whether I live a privileged and blessed lifestyle now, the answer to that’s ‘yes,’ ” he said. “A lot of us do. But it’s not where I come from. And I’ve not forgotten where I come from.”

Obama was asked about contributions from a donor indicted for demanding kickbacks on business deals. Obama said, “I have denounced it, but I have a track record of bringing people around this new kind of politics, since I was in the state legislature.”

In a lighter moment, Biden was asked about his propensity for putting his foot in his mouth and his well-known verbosity. Could he assure the American people he would not embarrass the country on the international stage?

The normally voluble Biden gave a one word reply: “Yes.” Then he stopped, to laughter from the audience.