NEW YORK -- Retired Gen. Wesley Clark emphatically presented his credentials as a Democrat on Thursday and attacked President Bush in campaign debate as "a man who recklessly cut taxes, who recklessly took us into war in Iraq."
Asked in the debate's opening moments about favorable comments he made about Bush as recently as 2001, Clark did not disavow them.
Instead, he said he is pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-environment and pro-health, adding "that's why I am proud to be a Democrat."
In a further slap at Bush's Iraq policy, the former supreme NATO commander said the United States should "engage with allies, be a good player in the international community, should use force only as a last resort."
Clark took his place alongside the other nine contenders scarcely a week after joining the race -- and rival Howard Dean passed up an opportunity to criticize the former general's recent political conversion.
"It's up to the voters in the Democratic Party to determine," he said. Dean, the former Vermont governor whose campaign has surprised the political pundits, quickly pivoted to other issues.
"The biggest issue in this campaign is the question of patriotism and democracy. I'm tired of (Attorney General) John Ashcroft and (Vice President) Dick Cheney ... lay claim to the American flag."
The event at Pace University was sponsored by the Democratic Party and billed as a clash over economic issues. NBC's Brian Williams served as moderator for the two-hour debate.
The Democrats quickly began jabbing one another, exposing differences over tax cut policy.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts criticized Dean for favoring a repeal of all of Bush's tax cuts to finance health care expansion and other programs. It is "absolutely wrong" to propose eliminating all cuts, said Kerry, who favors scaling back tax cuts for the wealthy while maintaining them for lower and middle income Americans.
Dean picked up that challenge quickly.
"This is exactly why the budget is so far out of balance. Washington politicians promising everything," he said. "We cannot win as Democrats" that way, he chastised his fellow New Englander.
"Tell the truth," he prodded Kerry. Dean said that among the rivals, only he and Sen. Bob Graham of Florida -- also a former governor -- had ever balanced budgets. With Graham's campaign in financial trouble, that remark amounted to an appeal to the Floridians' supporters to give his own economic credentials a look.
Asked about Bush's request for $87 billion in increased funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, only Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Al Sharpton said flatly they would oppose the funds.
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said, "we have no choice but to finance this program" to protect 140,000 American troops in Iraq and bring them home.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said, "I would vote for what is necessary to support the troops."
Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri said Congress needs more information from the administration before voting on Bush's request and said it can't be assumed that Republicans would vote for the request.
In a jab at Bush, he added, "It's incomprehensible to me that he can go to the UN" seeking help from other nations and "come away empty-handed."
Asked whether they would pledge not to raise taxes, Graham and Lieberman both declined.
Clark, who has only just begun sketching out a domestic agenda, said he was determined to attack the ballooning federal deficit. He said he was prepared to "put all government programs on the table, including the military programs."
Asked his own view about Bush's request for $87 billion in funds for Iraq, he sought to turn his relative political inexperience into an asset.
"If I've learned one thing in my nine days of politics, you better be careful with hypothetical questions," said the retired general.
The little-known Clark grabbed the top spot in some national polls, but he is far behind his rivals in key early voting states. Public polls and private campaign surveys put him in single digits in Iowa and New Hampshire, though he may be faring better in South Carolina.
He has quickly built a solid team of veterans from the Clinton-Gore administration. His debate guests included Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., a former Clinton White House aide, and Bill Daley, chief of Al Gore's 2000 campaign.
Kerry and Dean have questioned Clark's commitment to the Democratic Party, noting his past support for Presidents Nixon and Reagan. Clark also has been criticized for flip-flopping on whether he would have voted for the resolution authorizing the Iraq war.
Every candidate is making an issue of the U.S. economy, though they differ on trade and whether to repeal all of Bush's tax cuts -- or just those that benefit upper-income Americans.
Under Bush, the economy has lost more than 3 million payroll jobs while the stock market is down trillions of dollars in paper wealth. The federal government, which had a $237 billion surplus in 2000, now faces a $455 billion deficit for this fiscal year.
Gephardt and Dean are alone in promising a total rollback of Bush's tax cuts to pay for health care reforms. Dean also promised to reduce the deficit.
The other major candidates would repeal portions of Bush's tax cuts that favor the wealthy -- generally people who earn more than $200,000 a year. But they would leave in place Bush cuts that help middle-class taxpayers, such as credits for parents.
Bush's political team plans to portray any Democratic nominee as a tax-raiser, a strategy Republicans used successfully in 1984 against Walter Mondale -- the last Democratic presidential candidate to bluntly tell voters he would raise taxes.
Democrats point to polls that suggest voters are willing to rollback Bush's taxes to pay for other needs. The debate's sponsors released a poll Thursday suggesting that 56 percent of Americans back cancellation of tax cuts for upper-income Americans to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq.
The poll also showed that Bush's job approval rating had slipped below 50 percent for the first time.
