Clinton and Giuliani Take Obama to Task

Saturday, November 3, 2007

UNDER FIRE OVER IRAN

Clinton and Giuliani Take Obama to Task

Barack Obama has tried to focus the Iran debate on his own world view over the past few days, introducing Senate legislation that would require specific congressional approval to go to war and telling interviewers that he would pursue an aggressive diplomatic approach toward the nation if he were elected president.

The Illinois Democrat's rivals wasted no time pushing back. Hillary Rodham Clinton, asked about her Senate colleague's Iran policy, said that while she would encourage "vigorous diplomacy," she does not think the president should play as direct a role as Obama is advocating.

"I do not believe the president should initially be engaged in personal diplomacy; I don't think that's the smart course to take," the senator from New York said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire yesterday. "There certainly will be opportunities for a president to become involved, but it has to be planned and managed. I watched my husband deal with difficult problems."

Without mentioning Obama by name, Clinton added: "And I don't think you promise without preconditions for the president to meet with the leaders of antagonistic states and get nothing in return, and you thereby undermine or even short-circuit the diplomatic process."

In a rare moment of bipartisan comity, GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Democratic front-runner. "This may be one of the few areas in which I agree with Hillary Clinton," the former New York mayor said in an interview with Bloomberg Television that will air this weekend.

Giuliani described Obama as having "a great deal of inexperience" and being "very, very naive" before launching into a diatribe against Obama's Iran policy. Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded to Giuliani's criticism by noting that "it's time for tough and direct diplomacy with Iran, not lectures from a mayor who skipped out on the Iraq Study Group to give paid speeches, and who was naive and irresponsible enough to recommend someone with ties to convicted felons for secretary of homeland security."

-- Anne E. Kornblut

ON THE FRINGE

In New Hampshire, A Diverse Field

The deadline bell for candidates to file in the New Hampshire presidential primary rang yesterday at the secretary of state's office in Concord, making official the absence of notable would-be candidates such as Al Gore and Newt Gingrich. But who needs a Nobel Peace Prize winner or former speaker of the House when you've got 44 candidates to choose from? In addition to the familiar names, they include:

¿ "Sal" Mohammed, an Egyptian-born pharmaceutical engineer who has run for governor and Congress in Iowa and is now running for the Democratic nomination despite the prohibition against naturalized citizens becoming president.

¿ Albert Howard, a Michigan father of eight, who proposes to "return America's gold to Fort Knox and have it audited" and "make it illegal to implant RFID chips in human beings."

¿ Perennial candidate Caroline Killeen, a.k.a. the Hemp Lady, a superannuated but still vigorous former nun who has been running on marijuana legalization and environmental issues since 1976. She gives her contact address as the Peace Hostel on Via Valecchie in Assisi, Italy.

-- Alec MacGillis

GENDER AND RACE

Clinton and Obama Play Their Cards

On the "Today" show yesterday, Barack Obama criticized Hillary Clinton for playing the gender card in her discussion of the manner in which the other candidates -- all men -- criticized her in this week's Democratic debate.

But if Clinton has made her sex a key part of her run, Obama's campaign in South Carolina, the first state in the primary process with a sizable black population, is strongly emphasizing to Palmetto State voters that they could help elect the first black president.

"Now I've heard that some folks aren't sure America is ready for an African American president," Obama said in Manning, S.C. "So, let me be clear: I never would have begun this campaign if I weren't confident I could win. . . . I am not asking anyone to take a chance on me. I am asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

The candidate, who doesn't often make explicitly racial appeals, said: "Imagine a president who was raised like I was by a single mom who had to work and go to school and raise her kids and accept food stamps for a while."

Polls show one of the biggest barriers is doubt among blacks that an African American could be elected president. And in a recent video message, Michelle Obama made a glancing reference to fears among African Americans that Obama could be shot if he were the candidate, but she said: "Don't base your vote this time on fear, base it on possibility."

-- Perry Bacon Jr.