The Trail

ANOTHER LINCOLN-DOUGLAS?

Clinton Wants Debate Without Moderators

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton again challenged Sen. Barack Obama to a debate in Indiana, but this time with a new twist: no moderators.

"Just the two of us going for 90 minutes asking and answering questions," Clinton said at a rally Saturday. "We'll set whatever rules seem fair."

Voters, Clinton said, "would love seeing that kind of debate and discussion; remember that's what happened during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. . . . I think that would be good for the Democratic Party, it would be good for our democracy and it would be great for Indiana."

Just before the senator from New York issued her challenge, Obama ruled out more debates in a taped interview with "Fox News Sunday" that will air Sunday.

"We've had 21, and so what we've said with two weeks, two big states we want to make sure that we're talking to as many folks possible on the ground, taking questions from voters," Obama said, according to excerpts of the interview. "We're not going to have debates between now and Indiana."

Robert Gibbs, the Obama campaign's communications director, added in a news release: "We have participated in 21 nationally televised debates, the most in primary history, including four exclusively with Senator Clinton. Senator Clinton refused an earlier invitation that had been accepted to debate in North Carolina. Over the next 10 days, we believe it's important to talk directly to the voters of Indiana and North Carolina about fixing our economy, cutting the cost of health care and ending a war in Iraq that never should have been authorized in the first place."

Obama was also pressed to debate by former president Bill Clinton, who said while laying out his wife's proposals at a campaign stop in the small town of North Bend, Ore., that "I wish that we could have debates on all this."

"Hillary has proposed that Oregon should have two debates, one on the issues generally and one on you, on rural life in America today and what should be done," Bill Clinton said, according to ABC News. "And if you agree, you oughta make your feelings known, either on her Web site or some other way."

The Clintons have called for debates in North Carolina and Indiana, which will vote on May 6, and in Oregon, which will hold a primary on May 20.

Obama and his supporters criticized the questions in a debate this month in Philadelphia, and last fall the senator from Illinois indicated he thought there were too many debates and forums. Clinton considers detailed discussions of policy a strength, and more debates offer more chances for her to change the dynamics of a race in which she trails.

Clinton aides note that more than 10 million viewers tuned into the debate in Philadelphia, and only a few sessions have featured Obama and Clinton.