Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Clinton, Obama take off gloves during South Carolina debate

There was little pretense of civility Monday night as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went after each other from the first moments of the CNN debate in South Carolina:

Obama went after Clinton during a discussion on economic stimulus by recalling his years as a community organizer in Chicago, adding: "While I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart."

And he brought up Bill Clinton's campaign surrogate role by chiding, "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."

Hillary Clinton, reacting to Obama's discussion of Republican ideas, struck back by saying: "I'm just reacting to the fact, yes, they did have ideas, and they were bad ideas. . . . Bad for America, and I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor [Tony] Rezko in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

Obama has been dogged by his connections to Rezko, an indicted businessman; he recently returned $40,000 in campaign contributions linked to Rezko.

Former senator John Edwards (N.C..) pursued Obama over his voting record in the Illinois legislature, seeking to turn the forum into a three-way brawl. But after being repeatedly sidelined by the back-and-forth, Edwards complained: "Are there three people in this debate, not two?"

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