Obama, Clinton clash

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By Ed Tibbetts | Wednesday, July 25, 2007 2:44 PM CDT | () comments

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tangled Tuesday in some of their sharpest terms yet over how to deal with countries that are antagonistic to the

United States.

In an interview with the Quad-City Times, U.S. Sen. Clinton, of New York, labeled as “irresponsible” and “naive” Obama’s statement that he was willing to meet, without precondition, the leaders of five countries hostile to the United States during the first year of his presidency.

U.S. Sen. Obama, of Illinois, countered in a separate interview with the Times, accusing the Clinton campaign of hatching a “fabricated controversy” and suggesting that her position put her on the same track as the Bush administration.

The exchange sprang from a questioner on a YouTube/CNN television debate Monday night asking whether Obama would be willing to meet in the first year of his presidency, without precondition, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

Obama said he would.

The Democratic presidential field has harshly criticized the Bush administration for failing to talk more with foreign countries.

Clinton said during the debate that she would pursue vigorous diplomacy, but would not make such a promise without knowing the other countries’ intent.

“I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes,” she said.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Clinton went further. Of Obama’s comment, she said: “I thought that was irresponsible and, frankly, naive.”

Her campaign later circulated a memo to reporters saying it was a “mistake” to commit to presidential-level meetings “with some of the world’s worst dictators” without precondition. Her remarks were portrayed by the campaign as showing her depth of experience.

Obama, responding to her comments, vigorously defended his remarks.

“What she’s somehow maintaining is my statement could be construed as not having asked what the meeting was about,” he said. “I didn’t say these guys were going to come over for a cup of coffee some afternoon.”

He added that Clinton is making a larger point.

“From what I heard, the point was: ‘Well, I wouldn’t do that because it might allow leaders like Hugo Chavez to score propaganda points,’ ” he said. “I think that is absolutely wrong.”

He likened Clinton’s position to a continuation of the Bush administration’s diplomatic policies. And he said what was “irresponsible and naive” was voting to authorize the Iraq war.

Clinton voted for the authorization measure in 2002, but has said since that, in hindsight, she would not have done so again.

Obama, an Illinois state senator at the time, opposed the war authorization.

Early in the day, Obama’s campaign circulated a memo saying that Clinton’s YouTube position was actually a reversal from a comment she made in April that it would be a “terrible mistake for our president to say he will not talk with bad people.”

In her interview with the Times on Tuesday, Clinton rejected the idea that she reversed herself, and her campaign said Obama did not provide the full context of her April remarks. Clinton added that she would not rule out talks with those leaders, but she would not promise it within a certain time frame, either.

“Sen. Obama gave an answer which I think he is regretting today,” she said.

By the end of the day, ABC-TV, NBC-TV and cable network CNN had asked permission to broadcast audiotapes of the Times interviews with Clinton and Obama.

Some media commentators said Tuesday that Clinton got the best of the debate exchange. Obama’s campaign said focus groups favored him.

Clinton spoke to the Times to push for a proposal that she and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are offering that would require the Pentagon to give Congress a report about contingency planning to redeploy troops from Iraq.

The senator said she has “reason to believe” the Pentagon is being blocked “for political reasons by the White House” from preparing the contingency plans.

Asked to elaborate, Clinton said she had received reports from inside and outside the Pentagon that it is under “tremendous pressure not to plan and not to admit to planning.”

The White House declined comment Tuesday.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com. Comment on this article at qctimes.com.