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 Clinton, Obama debate in Ohio
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed over trade, health care and the war in Iraq Tuesday night in a crackling debate at close quarters one week before a pivotal group of primaries.
Charges of negative campaign tactics were high on the program, too.
Clinton said Obama's campaign had recently sent out mass mailings with false information about her health care proposal, adding, "it is almost as though the health insurance companies and the Republicans wrote it."
When it was his turn to speak, Obama said Clinton's campaign has "constantly sent out negative attacks on us ... We haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns."
The tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback.
Clinton also said as far as she knew her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya.
"I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo," Obama said.
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Sen. Dodd endorses Obama
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Sen. Christopher Dodd endorsed one-time presidential rival Barack Obama on Tuesday and said it is time for Democrats to join forces to defeat the Republicans in the fall campaign.
"I don't want a campaign that is divisive here, and there's a danger in that," Dodd said, although he denied he was nudging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to end her candidacy.
He said Obama "has been poked and prodded, analyzed and criticized, called too green, too trusting and for all of that has already won" more than half the states and millions of votes.
Obama and Clinton had been vying for Dodd's support since he exited the presidential race after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus last month. Dodd, 63, who won his Senate seat in 1980 and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1995-1996, has long-standing ties to the Clintons.
Dodd said he spoke with Clinton on Monday evening to tell her of his decision.
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McCain disavows comments about Obama
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a "hack, Chicago-style" politician.
Hussein is Obama's middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee's appearance.
"Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you're going to have in your pocket is change," Cunningham said as the audience laughed.
McCain wasn't on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech.
"I apologize for it," McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham's comments.
"I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them," he said.
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Bill Clinton says wife can offer change
DALLAS (AP) -- Reminding voters of the high-stakes Texas and Ohio primaries next Tuesday, former President Clinton recognized rival Barack Obama's likeability but warned his wife's supporters not to slip into a "historical amnesia" about the successes of the 1990s.
"The argument being made by the other side is the only way you can really change America is to eliminate for consideration from the presidency anybody that did ever did anything good in the 1990s and stopped anything bad from happening in this decade," the two-term president told supporters Tuesday while campaigning for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He said the New York senator should not be penalized at the voting booth because she embodies experience.
"I realize that Vice President Cheney and President Bush have given experience a bad name," Bill Clinton said. "I know that. But this is not about experience versus change. This is about electing the best change-maker."
The former president had six rallies scheduled Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
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General: Obama's story may be true
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gen. George Casey, the Army's chief of staff, said Tuesday he has no reason to doubt Barack Obama's recent account by an Army captain that a rifle platoon in Afghanistan didn't have enough soldiers or weapons.
But he questioned the assertion that the shortages prevented the troops from doing their job.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Casey said the incident would have occurred in 2003 and 2004 following the Iraq invasion. He said he remembers it as a "difficult time" trying to rush armor and other equipment to the troops.
"I have no reason to doubt what it is the captain said," Casey said. "This was 2003 and 2004, almost four and a half years ago. We acknowledge and all worked together to correct the deficiencies that we saw in that period, not only in Afghanistan but in Iraq. It was a period that we worked our way through."
During a Democratic debate last week, Obama said an Army captain remembered leading a platoon in Afghanistan that was short on men, ammunition and Humvees.
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Clinton backer deems Ohio, Texas crucial
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The national chairman of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Tuesday she must win Ohio and Texas next week to keep her campaign for the Democratic nomination viable.
"If she wins those, we then go on to April 22 in Pennsylvania," Terry McAuliffe said. "If we don't, then she has to make a decision on what she's going to do."
McAuliffe told a business group in Madison the March 4 contests were crucial for the former first lady to begin erasing Sen. Barack Obama's lead in delegates, echoing recent comments by former President Clinton.
Victories in Ohio and Texas would give Hillary Clinton momentum heading into the Pennsylvania contest, McAuliffe said. A victory in that state would give her wins in big states across the country, including California and New York, he said.
"We win Pennsylvania, add it to the other big states she will have won by then ... and we've got a real fight," he said. "The nomination could go all the way to the convention, which hasn't really happened since 1952."
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama debate at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain and Mike Huckabee campaign in Ohio.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"This is the moment for Democrats and independents and others to come together, to get behind this candidacy."
-- Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., in endorsing Barack Obama, his former presidential rival.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
Of the potential matchups for November's general election, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton leads Republican John McCain by 48 percent to 43 percent. Barack Obama's lead over McCain is twice that size, 51 percent to 41 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos survey.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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