Clinton, Obama turn it down some

LOS ANGELES - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, alone together on a debate stage for the first time, engaged last night in a mostly respectful exploration of their positions on health care, immigration reform, and the war in Iraq.

The two candidates, seated next to each other, generally were eager to critique each other's positions but unwilling to engage in the bitter, personal back-and-forth that has characterized the Democratic race the last few weeks.

The most pointed exchange came on Iraq.

Obama said that if he were the Democratic nominee, he would offer "a clear contrast" to the Republican status quo on the war because he opposed it from the outset.

Clinton responded a few minutes later by offering a detailed explanation of her vote to authorize President Bush's use of force. Had she been president in 2002 and 2003, she stressed, she would never have allowed the United States to be distracted from the fight against terrorism and taken into Iraq.

Then Obama hammered home his point.

"The reason that this is important, again, is that Sen. Clinton, I think, fairly, has claimed that she's got the experience on Day One," he said. "And part of the argument that I'm making in this campaign is that it is important to be right on Day One."

With an eye toward Super Tuesday, now only four days away, both candidates acknowledged the reality underlined by the debate itself, that the two of them - an African American and a woman - are the surviving contestants for the Democratic nomination.

"You know," Obama said, "it is a testimony to the Democratic Party and it is a testimony to this country that we have the opportunity to make history, because I think one of us two will end up being the next president of the United States of America."

Clinton agreed, saying the Republican candidates represented more of the same.

"Neither of us, just by looking at us, you can tell, we are not more of the same. We will change our country," Clinton said. She added later: "I think having the first woman president would be a huge change for America and the world."

Typical of the evening was the lengthy discussion of the candidates' positions on health care. Both have complex plans to expand the availability of health insurance; Clinton's would cover everyone, Obama's would not.

"There won't be anybody out there who wants health care who will not be able to get it," Obama said. "Now, under any mandate, you are going to have problems with people who don't end up having health coverage."

Clinton said it was essential that a health-care proposal cover everyone. "It's so important that as Democrats, we carry the banner of universal health care," she said.

On those rare occasions when the candidates got snarky with each other, they were apologetic about it.

When a question was asked about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, which had tripped up Clinton in a past debate, Obama pointed out the difficulty his opponent had experienced with voicing a firm position on the subject.

"I bring it up only to show it's a difficult political issue," the Illinois senator explained.

Clinton smiled and offered a reminder that Obama, in a subsequent debate, had struggled with the subject himself.

"So this is a difficult issue," the New York senator said.

Obama favors licenses for illegals; Clinton reiterated last night that she opposes the idea.

Throughout the session, the two candidates made repeated, laudatory references to John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who suspended his campaign Wednesday, in an obvious attempt to woo his supporters.

And they reserved their harshest words for the Republicans.

Obama took a shot at the GOP, and party front-runner John McCain, when asked how he would defend himself in the general election against the accusation that he is a tax-and-spend liberal.

"I don't think the Republicans are going to be in a real strong position to argue fiscal responsibility," he said, criticizing McCain for abandoning a previous position and now supporting making the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent. Obama said that "the Straight Talk Express lost some wheels."

Clinton went after the Republican of her choice, President Bush, when asked about how continuing the so-called Bush-Clinton dynasty - there has been a member of either family in the White House as president or vice president for the last 28 years - would represent meaningful change.

"It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush," she said, referring to her husband's succeeding the current president's father, "and it may take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush."

On Tuesday, the two Democrats will compete for delegates in 22 primaries and caucuses, including in California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey.

Last night's much-anticipated event took place in Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, site of the annual Academy Awards show, the final stages of American Idol, and other glitzy events. Numerous show-business figures were in attendance.

No further debates have been scheduled. But should the Clinton-Obama competition go on past Super Tuesday, as now seems more likely than not, there will almost surely be more.

Earlier in the day, the prestigious, nonpartisan National Journal issued its annual ratings of the voting records of members of Congress.

Obama was rated the most liberal member of the Senate for 2007 - he had ranked no higher than 10th in his two previous years in the Senate - while Clinton came in 16th.

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