Democratic rivals tear into Clinton in debate

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats Barack Obama and John Edwards sharply challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candor, consistency and judgment Tuesday in a televised debate that unfolded two months before the first presidential primary votes.

Obama, an Illinois senator, said Clinton has changed her positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement, torture policies and the Iraq war. Leadership, he said, does not mean "changing positions whenever it's politically convenient."

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, said Clinton "defends a broken system that's corrupt in Washington, D.C." He stood by his earlier claim that she has engaged in "double talk."

Clinton, standing between the two men, largely shrugged off the remarks and defended her positions.

She said she has specific plans on Social Security, diplomacy and health care. "I have been standing against the Republicans, George Bush and Dick Cheney," she said, "and I will continue to do so, and I think Democrats know that."

It was the Democrats' first debate in a month. The Iowa caucuses are scheduled for Jan. 3, and the New Hampshire primary could come even earlier.

Clinton defended her Senate vote in favor of designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. Obama, Edwards and others have said Bush could interpret the measure as congressional approval for a military attack.

Edwards challenged Clinton's claim that she stands up to the Bush administration. "So the way to do that is to vote yes on a resolution that looks like it was written literally by the neocons?" he said.

"In my view, rushing to war - we should not be doing that - but we shouldn't be doing nothing," Clinton said. "And that means we should not let them acquire nuclear weapons, and the best way to prevent that is a full court press on the diplomatic front."

Clinton, a New York senator, also was the main focus during a discussion of the Iraq war.

"If you believe that combat missions should be continued in Iraq" without a timetable for withdrawal, Edwards said, "then Sen. Clinton is your candidate." Edwards vowed to have all combat troops out of Iraq "in my first year in office."

Clinton replied, "I stand for ending the war in Iraq, bringing our troops home." She added, however, that "it is going to take time," and some troops must remain to fight al-Qaida-in-Iraq.

"I don't know how you pursue al-Qaida without engaging them in combat," she said.

Some candidates expressed frustration that most of the questions were directed to Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Seventeen minutes into the debate, Rep.Dennis Kucinich of Ohio had yet to get a question and asked, "Is this a debate here?" Minutes later, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson threw up his hands in protest that he hadn't been called on either and exchanged a frustrated glance with Kucinich.

Obama, alluding to the partisanship that bedeviled Bill Clinton's presidency, told the former first lady, "Part of the reason that Republicans, I think, are obsessed with you, Hillary, is because that's a fight they're very comfortable having. It is the fight that we've been through since the '90s."

Richardson criticized his rivals for challenging Clinton so sharply. He rebuked their "holierthan-thou attitude."

Edwards and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut cited Clinton's relatively high unfavorability ratings.

Only briefly did the candidates aim their remarks at Republicans. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani "is genuinely not qualified to be president."

Giuliani's entire message is "a noun, a verb and 9/11," Biden said, but the former New York mayor had "done nothing" to implement anti-terrorism recommendations of the 9/11 commission.

The debate, held at Drexel University, was aired by cable channel MSNBC. Organizers excluded former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska on grounds that he did not meet fundraising and polling thresholds.