Dems in Texas showdown
AUSTIN DEBATE | Obama, Clinton clash over words
AUSTIN, Texas -- While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton argued that the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama is about words that were lifted from someone else, Obama, at a debate here Thursday night, disputed "the implication" from Clinton that his supporters are "somehow delusional" or "being duped," citing his string of election wins and endorsements.
The debate -- the second one-on-one between Clinton and Obama -- comes as the latest polls shows the Texas contest nearly deadlocked -- Clinton's strong lead gone -- and as Obama has won 11 state contests in a row. Clinton is under pressure to make a commanding showing in the March 4 elections in Texas and Ohio to keep alive her quest for the White House.
(AP)
Clinton had the harder job at the debate at the University of Texas at Austin campus because it was critical for her, and Obama -- suffering from a cold -- needed just to get through it without making a mistake. Clinton, in her opening, indirectly acknowledged her plight in talking about "determination" and keeping going against "insurmountable odds" in citing two Texas political icons who were her friends, the late Rep. Barbara Jordan and the late Gov. Ann Richards.
The two Democrats barely clashed, with a discussion of the merits of their health care plans -- Clinton for insurance mandates, Obama for market forces -- with Obama saying during a discussion about the economy that his point is not so much their disagreements but that he can deliver "a working coalition for change."
In recent days, the Clinton camp has been highlighting that Obama has borrowed passages from speeches from his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a native of Chicago's South Side, with videotaped side-by-sides on YouTube.
Asked about it during the debate, Obama said, "There are two lines in speeches that I've been giving over the last couple of weeks."
(That's not quite accurate. At issue are more than two lines, and it goes further back than just two weeks.)
Clinton drew boos when she said, "Well, I think that if your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words. That's, I think, a very simple proposition. And you know --you know, lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in; it's change you can Xerox."
The passages in question have to do with Obama's -- as was Patrick's -- defense that their aspirational candidacies were "just words." Obama debunked this at the debate, armed with the evidence of vote results.
"And the implication is, is that, you know, the people who have been voting for me or involved in my campaign are somehow delusional ... you know, the thinking is that somehow they're being duped and that eventually they're going to see the reality of things."
If a Clinton goal was to get more personal for voters in the few weeks that might be left to her candidacy, she used a question -- to name a crisis she has endured -- to say, "I think everyone knows I have lived through some crises and some challenging moments in my life."
Leaning over to shake hands with Obama, she said, "You know, no matter what happens in this contest -- and I am honored, I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. ... Whatever happens, we're going to be fine."