Hillary accuses foes of 'throwing mud'
Insists she's not playing 'gender card'
LAS VEGAS -- Regaining her footing during a boisterous Democratic presidential debate Thursday, Hillary Rodham Clinton said her rivals were "throwing mud" as Barack Obama and John Edwards sought to portray her as evasive and fence-straddling.
Moderated by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the at-times rowdy, hooting and clapping audience added a Vegas show element to the heated seven-way debate, hosted by the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
(AP)
Clinton, the front-runner, came to the stage after suffering the toughest two weeks of her campaign, triggered by a poor performance at the last debate Oct. 30 in Philadelphia. Clinton then complained the "boys" were piling on.
At one point, Clinton denied playing the gender card: "I'm not exploiting anything at all. I'm not playing, as some people say, the gender card here in Las Vegas. I'm just trying to play the winning card."
Clinton was asked at the end of the debate by a female voter whether she preferred diamonds or pearls. After spending two hours trying to demonstrate she was decisive, Clinton waffled: "Now, I know I'm sometimes accused of not being able to make a choice. I want both."
The debate featured tough three-way clashes among Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Clinton said, "I don't mind taking hits on my record on issues, but when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it's both accurate and right out of the Republican playbook."
The line was directed at former Sen. Edwards (D-N.C.) after he accused her basically of not being trustworthy.
The New York senator got in trouble in Philadelphia because she waffled over a now-scuttled plan of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses. Obama (D-Ill.) referred to that in the opening minutes of the two-hour, wide-ranging confrontation.
"What the American people are looking for right now is straight answers to tough questions, and that is not what we've seen out of Senator Clinton on a host of issues," said Obama, referring to the Spitzer plan.
With immigration teed up to be a major November general election wedge issue between Republicans and Democrats, the issue of giving illegal immigrants driver's licenses revealed a true split between the Democrats: Against were Clinton, Edwards and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Supporting it were Obama, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).
The Clinton campaign noted in an e-mail memo that Edwards switched his position, sending around a transcript from a 2004 "Hardball" show where he said he was for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
While the Democrats all back a form of universal health insurance, Clinton aggressively went after Obama because his plan does not mandate coverage for all. Obama "talks a lot about stepping up and taking responsibility and taking strong positions. But when it came time to step up and decide whether or not he would support universal health care coverage, he chose not to do that."
Obama replied that "I do provide universal health care" and that the difference is over mandates rather than affordable health care.