|
Hillary hits back
16/11/2007 09:57 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
| Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Gov Bill Richardson of New Mexico, laugh together during a debate in Las Vegas. (Jae C Hong, AP) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Las Vegas, Nevada - Hillary Clinton accused her Democratic White House rivals of "throwing mud" on Thursday, apparently shoring up her status as front-runner in a testy debate, after a string of recent missteps.
Top challengers Barack Obama and John Edwards tried hard to inflict further damage on the former first lady's previously unchallenged campaign, but took sharp return blows themselves at the debate in gambling paradise Las Vegas.
"When somebody starts throwing mud at least we can hope it is accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook," Clinton said, joking she was wearing an asbestos pantsuit to ward off fiery attacks by her rivals.
And she also rejected claims that she had played the "gender card" after her aides had appeared to suggest that she had been attacked in a previous debate because she was a woman.
"I'm just trying to play the winning card ... I understand, very well, that people are not attacking me because I'm a woman; they're attacking me because I'm ahead."
The debate ramped up the heat in the Democratic race, 49 days before the critical leadoff party nominating contest, the fabled caucuses in Iowa, where the candidates are running neck-and-neck.
Obama, riding high after an electrifying speech to activists in Iowa on Saturday, tried to skewer Clinton in the debate's tense first exchange.
"What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, that is not what we have seen out of Senator Clinton," Obama charged.
Sounding like a Republican candidate
Later, he charged Clinton, who leads national Democratic polls and key state surveys, with being deceptive, and accused her of sounding like a Republican candidate.
"This is the kind of thing I would expect from Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani where we start playing with numbers to make a point," he said, in an argument with her on retirement savings.
But Clinton, throughout the two-hour clash, stressed her experience, to suggest Obama was not properly prepared to serve in the Oval Office.
"It is important that we have a candidate that is tested and a president who is ready to lead from day one," she said, in the debate in the fast-growing western state of Nevada, which holds its own Democratic caucuses on January 19.
Throughout the debate, Clinton appeared more relaxed than her previous showdown with her rivals, smiling and laughing frequently. Several times, Obama and another rival John Edwards elicited boos from the audience, when they went on the attack.
Costas Panagopoulos, of the Campaigns and Elections programme at Fordham University, said Clinton appeared to have drawn a line under her shaky two weeks since the last debate in Philadelphia.
"Clearly, Senator Clinton came prepared for battle," he said.
"She was well armoured and she was expecting that she would have to respond to some of these attacks," he said.
- AFP
|
