|
WASHINGTON: Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday
(Monday in the Philippines) attacked his chief rival Hillary Clinton
as a polarizing throwback to 1990s battles, days before the
nail-biting 2008 race kicks off in Iowa.
With all the candidates preparing for a brief
Christmas pause before flinging themselves full bore into the first
nominating contest, Republican contender Rudy Giuliani said he felt
“great” after a health scare last week.
Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, the former
Arkansas governor who has come from nowhere to shake up the
Republican field, said meanwhile that his faith meant he was best
placed to reunite a fractured country.
Appearing on US networks’ Sunday talk shows,
the candidates drummed up support before the Iowa caucuses on
January 3, which will be followed by primary votes in New Hampshire
on January 8.
Obama, the Illinois senator hoping to be
America’s first black president, said on CBS News that former
first lady Clinton was “a capable, solid senator from New York.”
“But because of the history of some of the
battles that have taken place back in the ’90s, it is true that
she tends to galvanize the other side,” he said, pitching his own
appeal to Republicans and independent voters.
“And the reason I think we’re doing well is
that we represent a set of new ideas and a new attitude in terms of
inviting the American people in to participate in their
government.”
The Clinton-Obama contest has turned more biting
as polls have shown that the wife of former president Bill Clinton
no longer has an unbeatable lead in the first battleground states.
In a new campaign advertisement aimed squarely
at Obama, Hillary Clinton said: “I have 35 years’ experience
making change … This election isn’t about choosing change over
experience. Change only comes with experience.”
Obama turned the tables by noting that much the
same criticism about inexperience was leveled at Bill Clinton before
the 1992 election.
“And his argument was, look, my experience is
rooted in the real lives of real people and will bring real results
if we have the courage to change,” Obama said.
While the Clintons and Obama kept up a punishing
pace in the frosty flatlands of Iowa, Giuliani said there were no
grounds for concern over his own stamina following a hospital stay
for what aides said were “flu-like symptoms.”
Interviewed on ABC News, the former New York
mayor said tests had shown no return of the prostate cancer that
forced him out of the race for New York senator against Hillary
Clinton in 2000.
“I’m back on the trail, ready to go, hale
and hearty, feeling great. And, you know, actually reassured by the
fact that I had so many different tests and they all came back 100
percent,” he said.
For months, Giuliani had been leading in
national Republican polls, but Huckabee has chipped away at the
margin and now leads in Iowa, where former Massachusetts governor
Mitt Romney is running second.
“I never expected that I would just, you know,
kind of coast into the nomination,” Giuliani said, adamant that he
would pull off a major victory in Florida on January 29 and when
other big states vote in early February.
The wisecracking Huckabee’s surprise success
has enlivened the Republican race just as Romney faces questions
over whether his Mormon faith will hurt his own chances.
Huckabee has pitched his message to evangelical
conservatives in Iowa, but said on CBS that he would be president
“of all America.”
“And that’s how I served as governor,” he
said. “People look at my record and they didn’t see that I put a
tent out on the capitol grounds and had healing services, and I
didn’t replace the dome with a steeple.”
Huckabee has sparked a new controversy with a
television spot that defies political correctness by underscoring
the Christian nature of Christmas.
Obama, Clinton and Giuliani have all weighed in
with their own festive ads, sparking complaints that nothing is
sacrosanct any more in this overheated political season.
“Season’s greetings to all of them, but
frankly I prefer Christmas carols at Christmas-time,” veteran CBS
anchor Bob Schieffer said.
-- AFP
|
