Wake-up call gets a substantive riposte

WASHINGTON —  Facing what many view as a dream candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton set out Thursday night to prove the point -- that Barack Obama is just a dream.

She said his soaring rhetoric had been stolen from others -- “change you can Xerox,” she called it -- and said she had been “amused” to watch one of Obama’s supporters wilt on national television when asked to name a single legislative accomplishment by the Illinois senator.

Clinton’s attacks were one part of an otherwise largely civil encounter between the two Democratic presidential contenders. But her comments underscored exactly how she intends to burst the Obama bubble in the days leading up to the crucial March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio -- by trying to inflict buyer’s remorse on the growing number of Democratic voters moving to his camp even though they may know little about his record.

Obama was clearly aware that this was the central question he would face as he attempted to close a once-unimaginable deal with voters that would end the Clinton reign over Democratic politics.

It is a question that, as the party’s nominee, he would no doubt face from Republicans, who have already started to portray him as inexperienced and lacking substance.

In one memorable riff, he accused Clinton of implying that his campaign and his supporters “are somehow delusional,” and that “somehow they’re being duped and that eventually they’re going to see the reality of things.”

Obama then sought to demonstrate that he too can be a candidate of substance.

He spoke at length -- mind-numbing length -- about what he called “very specific, concrete, detailed proposals” on healthcare, college aid and taxes.

“Sen. Clinton has a fine record. So do I,” he said.

The stylistic divide between the two Democratic rivals was on display, as well, as they bore down on each other’s approaches to healthcare.

Clinton, working to strike that contrast of style versus substance, seemed to channel the populism of former Sen. John Edwards, who has yet to endorse a candidate since dropping out of the race.

She railed against health insurance companies that decide “who will live or die,” and argued that Obama, in wanting to unite the country, was ignoring the power of competing interests that “do not want the changes to get to universal healthcare.”

Clinton asserted that she and Edwards had taken a risk in backing a mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance -- a requirement that Obama does not support.

Obama, eager to show that he could go toe to toe with Clinton on the nitty-gritty of policy, welcomed the contrast. He reminded viewers that Clinton, in her attempt as first lady to forge universal healthcare, had failed because she refused to work with industry players and even some Democratic lawmakers.

His argument that he would lead the debate in an open way, and give all parties a “seat at the table,” allowed Obama to argue that he too had a strategy to fix the system -- and that his strategy was valid. And it allowed him to turn what Clinton calls his big weakness into a strength -- his charisma and communication skills make him more likely to build coalitions and get things done.

Clinton and Obama are scheduled to debate one more time before the next round of primaries. For Clinton, March 4 is pivotal; even her closest advisors concede that losing Ohio or Texas, after her string of 11 losses, would likely prove too devastating to overcome.

But in Thursday night’s performance, and by repeatedly admonishing the voters to “get real,” as she has done in campaign appearances in recent days, Clinton appears to be embracing the same strategy that many think helped her score a surprising victory last month in the New Hampshire primary.

She had lost badly in the Iowa caucuses, but it was in New Hampshire that her husband, former President Clinton, called Obama’s candidacy a “fairy tale.”

Exit polls showed that voters who made their decision at the last minute backed Clinton. With new polls showing Clinton’s once-huge leads in Ohio and Texas slipping away, she may be running out of time for a fairy-tale ending of her own.

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peter.wallsten@latimes.com