Democrats get their first close-up

ORANGEBURG, S.C. —  Even as they roundly attacked President Bush’s policies on Iraq, the leading Democratic candidates for president sought to burnish their credentials Thursday as tough leaders who would defeat terrorists.

Their comments came in a generally tame but wide-ranging debate, the first of the 2008 campaign, and underscored the challenge facing Democratic candidates, who must woo antiwar primary election voters while fending off Republican attempts to paint them as weak on defense, which could prove damaging in the general election.

“If we are attacked, and we can determine who is behind that attack, and if there are nations that supported or gave material aid to those who attacked us, I believe we should quickly respond,” said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the front-runner in most polls among the eight candidates who shared the stage.

Some of Clinton’s rivals -- including former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- offered similarly tough language when asked what they would do if two U.S. cities were attacked by Al Qaeda.

“I would respond militarily, aggressively,” Richardson said.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said he would respond to an attack on U.S. cities by ensuring “that we’ve got an effective emergency response” and “that we’ve got good intelligence” about potential new threats.

Obama returned to the subject later, as if to toughen up his initial response, adding: “We have genuine enemies out there that have to be hunted down. Networks have to be dismantled.”

The debate, televised nationally on MSNBC, marked the first time that all eight Democrats faced each other in a format designed to sharpen their differences.

The exchanges were mostly cordial, with Biden at one point cautioning that Republicans would be making a “big mistake” if they underestimated Clinton’s ability to win the general election.

But for Clinton and Obama, who have faced criticism from the party’s liberal base for not supporting an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, the event showcased potential problems.

Every senator on the stage had voted earlier Thursday for legislation that would fund U.S. troops but require a withdrawal from Iraq starting no later than October -- a step that many antiwar activists in the party think does not go far enough toward ending the U.S. military commitment there.

“It’s inconsistent to tell the American people that you oppose the war and yet you continue to vote to fund the war,” said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio.

That point and other criticism like it from candidates Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel underscored that Obama and Clinton face common challenges as they grappled with the politics of the war -- an unexpected dynamic, given that much of the campaign has focused on differences between the two front-runners in their initial approaches to Iraq.

Obama opposed the war from the start, though he was not in the Senate when Clinton and others voted to authorize military action. But he has since angered antiwar activists by supporting renewed funding. Clinton has upset critics of the war by refusing to renounce her 2002 vote authorizing military force.

When Obama said in the debate that the Senate could end the war only if Republicans joined Democrats in overriding Bush’s expected veto of a timetable for troop withdrawals, Clinton was quick to agree.

“I think that what Barack said is right,” she said. “I mean, part of our challenge is to put together the political support throughout the country, particularly within the Republican Party, to join with us to bring an end to this war. You know, it sounds simple to say it, but it is more difficult to achieve it.”

The format for the 90-minute debate allowed each candidate a total of 11 minutes to talk -- giving Kucinich and Gravel, both of whom have a negligible showing in polls, equal time with the front-runners, which they used to take aggressive hits at Clinton and Obama.

The dynamic produced at least one memorable exchange, in which Gravel knocked Obama for saying he would not rule out any options in responding to Iran’s nuclear program.

“Who the hell are we going to nuke? Tell me, Barack,” Gavel said.

“I’m not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike. I promise,” Obama said, his words muffled by audience laughter.

Voting in South Carolina and other early primary states is nine months away, and Clinton, the former first lady, leads the Democratic field in most states, according to public opinion surveys.

But a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll published Thursday shows Obama closing in nationally, trailing Clinton 36% to 31%. Edwards was third with 20%.

In South Carolina, a survey this month by Democratic pollster Dave Beattie, who is not affiliated with any campaign, showed Clinton holding a 4-percentage-point lead over Obama.

The debate was held at South Carolina State University, a historically black college. Half of the expected Democratic primary voters in the state are black.

Amid the tough talk on national security, seemingly aimed at independent voters in a general election, all of the candidates found ways to highlight points in their resume that were likely to resonate with Democratic voters.

Clinton said she tried to enact universal healthcare during her husband’s presidency; Biden noted that he took a lead role in derailing the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court; Edwards said he was the son of a textile worker; and Kucinich noted that he had been the mayor of Cleveland.

A discussion of healthcare produced one of the clearest lines of division.

Alone among the candidates, Edwards called for rolling back Bush’s tax breaks for Americans making more than $200,000 a year to pay for universal healthcare.

Clinton said she would not put any new money into the healthcare system “until we figure out how to get the best outcome for the money we already have.”

Clinton offered a dramatic admission that her push for universal healthcare in 1993 was fraught with mistakes. The episode was viewed as one of the most prominent failures of her husband’s administration.

“I don’t have enough time to tell you all the mistakes I’ve made in the last many years,” Clinton said.

“Certainly, the mistakes I made around healthcare were deeply troubling to me and interfered with our ability to get our message out.”

Edwards, who has offered the most detailed healthcare plan of any Democrat in the race, said it was important for candidates to offer substance.

“Rhetoric is not enough,” he said.

“Highfalutin language is not enough.”

Candidates were put on the defensive when moderator Brian Williams raised what he called the “elephants in the room,” a reference to some unflattering episodes in several contenders’ backgrounds.

Edwards said that spending campaign money on two $400 haircuts was a mistake, and Obama said he had denounced the actions of a campaign donor who was in trouble with the law.

Biden got one of the biggest laughs of the evening by giving the shortest response. Williams noted that Biden had been known for gaffes and long-windedness, and he asked him whether he “would have the discipline you would need on the world stage.”

“Yes,” Biden said.

He offered no elaboration, leaving Williams nonplused and drawing a roar from the audience.

peter.wallsten@latimes.com

mark.barabak@latimes.com

Wallsten reported from Orangeburg and Barabak from San Francisco.