Obama Jabbing From Defensive Stance

[December 29, 2007]  WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa (AP) -- Barack Obama is finishing the Iowa caucus campaign in the same position he started - a prize fighter's defensive stance.

The Illinois senator's stump speech for the final six days of the Democratic race is a package of inspirational rhetoric, policy promises and his signature message of hope. But the undercurrent of the addresses - delivered to large crowds four and five times a day - is a dogged response to Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and others who say he's too raw and ambitious for the presidency.

"There are those who say if you want to bring about change, you must have more experience," Obama told 200 Iowans who slogged through several inches of wet snow to hear him speak. "I don't understand this argument - the argument that you are the master of a broken system in Washington ... and yet you offer yourself up as a person to change it?"

Obama did not need to mention Clinton's name for his audience to know he was talking about the New York senator and former first lady who argues that she is the only Democrat with enough experience to change Washington.

Polls show that Clinton is indeed given the highest marks for experience. Obama, a one-term senator who left the Illinois Legislature less than four years ago, gets much lower grades.

On Thursday, when Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Clinton was able to talk about her personal relationship with the slain woman. Obama had nothing like that.

He got another crack at the topic Friday when a member of the audience asked him about Pakistan. He said he would suspend U.S. military aid that is not being used to fight terrorism until the country changes its "behavior."

Obama, who stands out in the Democratic field as long-opposed to the Iraq war, said the "bigger context" for the terrorist problems in Pakistan is his contention that the Iraq war "resulted in us taking the eye off the ball."

"We should have been focused on al-Qaida," he said.

In his own campaign, Obama has been painfully aware since the first days that he is asking voters to take a leap of faith to support him. "It's a stretch for them," he told The Associated Press last summer, "because I haven't been on the national scene for long."

He's still acting like a boxer in a tough match, throwing a stiff jab while covering vulnerable areas.

"Another argument that is out there now is ... you know what? He's not angry or conversational enough to actually bring about change," he said, paraphrasing Edwards on Obama.

"Let me tell you, Iowa, I don't need lectures about how to bring about change. I don't just talk about it on the campaign trail," he said. "I've been about it all my life."

Is he tough enough? Obama noted that many pundits argued that the only way he could survive the race "is if he knee-caps" his rivals. "We resisted," Obama said, adding that he can point out differences with opponents without engaging in "slash-and-burn" politics.

Is he too ambitious? Clinton's campaign suggested that Obama had been heading toward a presidential run for years, even holding up as evidence an essay he wrote in kindergarten about wanting to be president some day.

"I did not run for president to fulfill some long-held plans. I know some people have been going through my kindergarten records," he said, drawing laughter. "That is not why I chose to run."

Is he a risk? Clinton's husband, Bill, says Obama is asking voters to "roll the dice" on him, a contention that makes Obama bristle.

"What I had to insist is that the real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same players and expecting a different result," Obama said, turning the table on the Clintons. "That's the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Is he an authentic change agent? Even as Obama spoke, his campaign released a new television ad assailing Clinton-backed special interest groups that have mounted a campaign against his health care reform plan. "The same old Washington politics won't fix health care," the voice-over says. "But we can."

With all his money and polling, Obama doesn't know whether he will win the tight three-way race in Iowa. Or whether his image of change will trump his lack of experience.

Still, he's going from town to town thanking Democrats for giving him a fair hearing from the first day on the trail.

"Ten months later, Iowa, my faith in you has been vindicated," he said. "My faith in the American people has been justified."

Next Thursday will show how much faith Iowa has in him.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Ron Fournier has covered politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years.

[Associated Press; By RON FOURNIER]

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