Giuliani calls Clinton ambiguous on Iraq war, Iran

— Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Saturday that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has not stated clear goals for dealing with the Iraq war and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The Clinton campaign disputed the charges.

The former New York mayor also criticized Clinton's health insurance proposal and her suggestion that every child born in the U.S. should get a $5,000 "baby bond" from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

Based on Clinton's answers in recent debates, Giuliani said during a town-hall meeting that he cannot figure out her position on Iran.

"We're dealing with a level of ambiguity that I don't believe is a good sign in a would-be commander in chief in a time of war," said Giuliani.

In a debate late last month, Clinton refused to say whether she would pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013, what would be the end of her first presidential term.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," she said.

The New York senator also didn't offer a direct answer to a debate question about whether Israel had the right to bomb Iran if Iran posed a nuclear threat. She called the question a "hypothetical," and said, "That's better not addressed at this time."

Giuliani said he has made it clear that he would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power and would not rule out military action to stop that from happening.

He said the U.S. must win the war in Iraq so that country "will act as an ally for us in the Islamic terrorist war against us."

A Clinton spokesman said Clinton and Giuliani "fundamentally disagree" on this issue.

Clinton spoke later Saturday in Iowa with fellow Democratic hopefuls Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich, delivering their stump speeches to about 1,800 party faithful at the Johnson County fairgrounds.

Edwards blasted Clinton for recently voting in favor of a Senate resolution to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

"I differ with her about that and I wonder, if George Bush goes to war, six months later, six months from now, are we going to hear again, 'If only I'd known then what I know now?"' he said, drawing comparisons to Iraq. "How many times do we have to be taught this lesson?"

Clinton focused her ire on the Bush administration, telling the crowd that "the era of cowboy diplomacy is over. We're going to start working with therest of the world."

Richardson said the war in Iraq must end to curb the divisiveness plaguing the U.S.

"Get all our troops out, leave no troops behind, I will not leave 75,000 behind," the New Mexico governor said, referencing some estimates of a peacekeeping force needed in Iraq if the U.S. makes a quick exit.

Kucinich also hammered home an anti-war message.

"This campaign is about calling forth the courage of the American people to reject not just the occupation in Iraq, to reject not just a potential attack on Iran, but to reject war as an instrument of policy," the Ohio congressman said.

Dodd appealed to Iowans' sense of responsibility. "What you are impressed with are people who have ideas, have courage, have principles and values and [know] how to win elections and stand up and how to get a job done for America," he said.

Campaigning in his homestate of Illinois, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that health care and other domestic needs will be neglected until the Iraq war ends and that he had the judgment and ideas to lead the country.

"When this war is over, we can finally get back to facing the challenges we face here at home, the challenges you're grappling with every day," the Democrat told about 600 people at a union conference.

Giuliani, meanwhile, pledged to build the economy while keeping taxes low and government small.

"Americans solve problems,not the government," he told the several hundred people who came out for his appearance in the Fort Myers area in southwest Florida.

Giuliani has campaigned heavily in Florida already and said he will be back often before the primary.

"I think it's seared in the minds of all Americans how important Florida is," he said.

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Republican Mitt Romney promoted his anti-tax credentials while taking on Giuliani and Democrats over taxes and spending.

Romney boasted of his accomplishments as Massachusetts' governor and criticized Giuliani for his legal challenge to a law that allowed presidents to reject specific spending items in the federal budget.

As New York's mayor, Giuliani "went all the way to the Supreme Court to eliminate the line-item veto," said Romney, who used such an option 844 times in his state.

Giuliani spokesman Maria Comella hit back, saying, "Not only did he oppose tax relief and increase spending while governor, Mitt Romney imposed both income and sales taxes on out of state residents." Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Wills, Philip Elliott and Amy Lorentzen of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 10/07/2007

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