Democrats Address Race Issues In Debate

Obama said that what may be most critical is having a president who is in touch with the problems of a city such as New Orleans before disasters hit. "Part of the reason that we had such a tragedy," he said, "was the assumption that everybody could jump in their SUVs, load up with some sparkling water and check into the nearest hotel."

A question about the links between race, poverty and education produced a united front among the candidates, who called for more federal assistance to help cut the education and income gaps between whites and Americans of color.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said concerns about the cost of such programs should be secondary. "The first thing you hear is: How are you going to pay for it?" he said. "Nobody asks how we are going to pay for the war."

Obama also stressed the importance of spending more to educate children. "When you've got a bill called No Child Left Behind, you can't leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind," he said. "And unfortunately, that's what's been done."

Dodd said he has devoted his 26 years in Congress to education issues and would continue to do so as president. "I have walked the walk on these issues," he said.

Clinton, playing off the title of a book she wrote as first lady, said, "I really believe it takes a village to raise a child, and the American village has failed our children."

Edwards called poverty "the cause of my life" and said he would provide teachers with incentive pay to work in inner cities and rural areas, raise the minimum wage, and help give workers more rights to organize into unions.

Kucinich repeatedly drew the audience's attention back to the war in Iraq, saying funding for minority education and other urban issues has been redirected to military action overseas.

Former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska bashed the other Democrats onstage, at one point saying his colleagues were "very guilty" for the recent conduct of the government. He later closed the debate by saying: "We have to have a president who has moral judgment. Most of the people on this stage with me do not have it and have proven it by what they have done."

All of the candidates, asked about law enforcement disparities, called for a revision of the way the mandatory minimum sentences are applied. Several also demanded that different laws aimed at crack and powder cocaine be brought into closer alignment.

A question about the soaring rates of HIV and AIDS among black teenagers provoked some of the liveliest replies. Several of the candidates, including Edwards and Obama, said a universal health-care system is needed to treat people across the economic scale. Edwards drew applause with a three-point plan for AIDS: searching for a cure, funding treatment for all patients, and guaranteeing that HIV and AIDS treatments are covered by Medicaid. Clinton drew an enthusiastic response from women in the audience when she said that, if AIDS were afflicting young white women at the rate it is affecting black women, "there would be an outraged outcry in this country."

"If we don't begin to take it seriously and address it the way we did back in the '90s, when it was primarily a gay men's disease, we will never get the public services and the education that we need," Clinton said, eliciting a loud round of applause.

When it was his turn, Biden encouraged listeners to take an AIDS test, declaring that he had.

Obama noted that he and his wife had been tested for AIDS together.

"I just want to make clear: I got tested with Michelle, when we were in Kenya, in Africa," he said. Michelle Obama, sitting in the audience, laughed.

Staff writer Perry Bacon Jr. contributed to this report.