Democrats clash on Iraq, health care
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidates clashed on Sunday on Iraq and over the security of the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Democratic Presidential hopeful former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., left, makes a statement about Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., right, during the Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Sunday, June 3, 2007. [AP] |
While some members of Congress spoke out "loudly and clearly" last month against legislation to pay for the war through September but without a withdrawal timetable, "others did not," Edwards said.
"They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislating," Edwards told his rivals during the second Democratic debate.
Both Clinton and Obama voted against the bill - which passed - but without making a strong case against the legislation.
"I think it's obvious who I'm talking about," Edwards said.
Clinton disagreed with Edwards, both in his comments on her role on Iraq and in his characterization of Bush's global war on terrorism as a "political slogan, a bumper sticker."
As a New Yorker, "I have seen first hand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists," Clinton said.
Still, she said, "I believe we are safer than we were."
At the conclusion of the two-hour debate, the candidates were asked what their top priority would be for their first 100 days in office:
Edwards: "travel the world" and "re-establish America's moral authority."
Clinton: bring home US troops from Iraq.
Obama: bring home US troops and push for national health care.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: upgrade US schools and push a $40,000-a-year minimum wage for teachers.
Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: end the war in Iraq and defuse tensions with Iran and North Korea.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: help "reshape the world for peace" and end all nuclear weapons.
Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel: Remind Congressional leaders they can end the war in Iraq now.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: "Restore constitutional rights in this country."
The candidates sought to highlight their own differences on the war in Iraq.
Obama told Edwards, who voted in October 2002 to authorize the war in Iraq but now says that the vote was a mistake: "John, you're about four and a half years late on leadership on this issue."
Obama was not in the Senate at the time of the vote but had voiced opposition to the war resolution at the time.
Edwards conceded, "He was right, I was wrong" on opposing the war from the beginning. And Edwards sought to highlight his change of heart on his vote with Clinton's continuing refusal to disavow her vote for the war resolution.
Said Clinton: "That was a sincere vote."
She again declined to say her vote was wrong.
Kucinich said the war on Iraq should not just be blamed on Bush, but on the Congress that authorized it.
US troops "never should have been sent there in the first place," he said. Rather than debate timetables and benchmarks, the Democratic-controlled Congress should "just say no money, the war's over," he said.
To a question on whether English should be the official language in the United States, only former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel raised his hand in the affirmative.
But Obama protested the question itself, calling it "the kind of question
that was designed precisely to divide us." He said such questions "do a
disservice to the American people."
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Democrats clash on Iraq, health care(Over)
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