Democrats debate politely — except on the war

Former North Carolina senator John Edwards, left, New york Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, right, stand on stage prior to the start of the Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate.
(AFP/Getty Images)

Eight presidential hopefuls are mostly amiable to one another. The few jagged exchanges are over Iraq.




Eight Democratic presidential hopefuls differed sharply over Iraq and terrorism Sunday night in a largely polite debate that highlighted their contrasting histories on the war.



In one of the most barbed exchanges of the evening, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama snapped at former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards for suggesting that Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had failed to show leadership in withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.



Obama, who opposed the war before he was elected to the Senate, noted that Edwards had voted in 2002 to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq.



"I think, John, the fact is, is that I opposed this war from the start," Obama said. "So you are about 4 1/2 years late on leadership on this issue."



Edwards, who reiterated Sunday that he regrets his 2002 vote, has taken one of the strongest antiwar positions of the Democratic candidates, calling on Congress to cut off funding for the war.



Obama said it was "important not to play politics on something that is as critical and as difficult as this."

"I'll let Hillary speak for herself," Obama said, "but the fact of the matter is, is that all of us exercise our best judgment, just as we exercised our best judgment to authorize or not authorize this war."

Clinton, whose vote to authorize force in Iraq has proved a drag on her appeal to the party's antiwar faction, was the least confrontational of the three."What we are trying to do, whether it's by speaking out from the outside or working and casting votes that actually make a difference from the inside, we are trying to end the war," she said.



Clinton has called for a congressional resolution withdrawing approval of military action in Iraq. Like Obama and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), another presidential hopeful, Clinton voted last month against the latest bill funding the war.



The candidates, meeting in their second debate of the campaign, also differed over healthcare, with Edwards this time on the offense......