Public Voice Adds Edge to Debate

Would Clinton, one questioner asked, really be able to negotiate with Middle Eastern nations that give all their power to men? "I believe that there isn't much doubt in anyone's mind that I can be taken seriously," she said.

To Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), one voter asked: Which Republican would you pick as a vice president if you had to? He named Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.). Obama was asked whether he is "authentically black," and said he proved his racial bona fides whenever he tried to hail a cab in New York.

The candidates also produced videos, which were interspersed throughout the debate. Many were standard campaign ads, while Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.) tried to turn his white mane into a proxy for experience, which he says is his strongest attribute.

Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) used his video to take on the issue of his $400 haircuts. His 30-second video, set to the song "Hair," mocked the controversy and ended with a screen that read: "What really matters? You choose."

The Kansas University student who asked Obama whether he is sufficiently black asked Clinton to respond to commentary that she is not "satisfactorily feminine." She responded to laughter, "I couldn't run as anything other than a woman."

Then she turned the answer toward her principal campaign message. "Obviously, I'm not running because I'm a woman. I'm running because I think I'm the most qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running in January 2009."

Edwards was asked by Cooper whether he agreed with his wife, Elizabeth, who said last week that she believes her husband would be a better advocate for women than Clinton. "Senator Clinton has a long history of speaking out on behalf of women," he said. "She deserves to be commended for that. But I believe that on the issues that directly affect women's lives, I have the strongest, boldest ideas and can bring about the change that needs to be brought."

Clinton was far more circumspect in responding to a question from a Democratic precinct committeeman from Illinois. He noted that if she were elected and served two terms, the country would go through 28 years with a Bush or a Clinton in the White House.

"How would electing you, a Clinton, constitute the type of change in Washington so many people in the heartland are yearning for?" he asked.

Clinton responded with humor that drew applause from the largely Democratic audience. "Well, I think it was a problem that Bush was elected in 2000." But she never took on the question of how her candidacy would represent real change.

Iraq and health care produced sharp differences among the candidates. Biden passionately called out three senatorial rivals for voting against the recently passed Iraq funding bill, saying they had voted against funds for safer military vehicles that might prevent more U.S. soldiers from being killed.

"How in good conscience can you vote not to send those vehicles over there as long as there's one single, solitary troop there?" he thundered.

He also challenged New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for suggesting that he could bring all the troops out of Iraq by the end of this year. "There is not a single military man in this audience who will tell this senator [sic] he can get those troops out in six months if the order goes today," Biden said.

Edwards said Obama's health-care plan would not achieve universal coverage and passionately called for action after relating the story of a man he had met who had waited 50 years to have surgery for a cleft palate. "For five decades, [he] lived in the richest nation on the planet, not able to talk because he couldn't afford the procedure that would've allowed him to talk. When are we going to stand up and do something about this?"

Former senator Mike Gravel (Alaska) once again played the role of scourge, attacking Obama for the way he has raised money -- a charge Obama quickly sought to rebut -- while complaining that he was being ignored through most of the debate.

Kornblut reported from Washington.