Democratic rivals target Clinton’s vote on Iran

Clinton stumbles on immigration
Iraq and Iran provided the main clashes Tuesday nights, as the candidates generally agreed on strategies to bring down energy costs, improve education, make health care affordable and relieve the middle-class tax burden.

Dodd strayed most from the other candidates, disagreeing with their call for a massive move to alternative energy technologies. “Consumers are not going to be in a position where they can afford the more expensive fuels, the alternative fuels and technologies,” he said, instead urging a so-called corporate carbon tax, which would raise taxes on companies the more they pollute the environment.

Dodd also was the only candidate who raised his hand when Brian Williams, managing editor and anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” asked whether anyone believed illegal immigrants should not have driver’s licenses. “This is a privilege, not a right,” he said.

Clinton may have given her opponents an opening to bear down on their “doubletalk” attack. In a convoluted answer to the same question, Clinton first said she thought New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to let illegal immigrants have driver’s licenses “makes a lot of sense.” Then she said she did not endorse Spitzer’s plan even though she repeated that he had the right idea. Then she accused Russert of asking a “gotcha” question.

Edwards leaped, noting that Clinton appeared to have given two different answers in less than two minutes.

“I think this is a real issue for the country,” he said. “I mean, America is looking for a president who will say the same thing, who will be consistent, who will be straight with them.”

Kucinich, meanwhile, was the only candidate to call for the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. And he drew a surprised laugh from the crowd when he said he had once seen an unidentified flying object, joking, “I’m also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico.”

Can Clinton be elected?
For the most part, though, the field sought to score points against Clinton by declaring her to be incapable of winning the general election.

Ahead of the debate, David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama, pointed to polls that indicate that as much as 50 percent of the electorate would have a hard time choosing Clinton, who emerged as a polarizing figure during her husband’s administration, over any Republican on Election Day.

Seizing on Clinton’s assertion that Republicans had made her the center of their “conversations and consternation,” Obama said: “Part of the reason that Republicans, I think, are obsessed with you, Hillary, is because that’s a fight that they’re very comfortable having. It is a fight that we’ve been through since the ’90s.”

Edwards echoed Obama. “If people want the status quo, Senator Clinton’s your candidate,” he said.

Dodd told NBC News that the Clinton-can’t-win message was being sent primarily to Democrats in Iowa, whose Jan. 3 caucus has traditionally made or broken candidates.

While Clinton has commanding leads in most national polls, the most recent University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll, released last week, showed Clinton and Obama in a statistical dead heat, at 29 percent to 27 percent, with Edwards in the picture at 20 percent.

Dodd did not register in the Iowa poll, but he said he was not concerned, noting that fortunes can swing quickly.

“John Kerry was 19 points behind Howard Dean on Dec. 23, 2003,” Dodd said in an interview Tuesday with NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell. “Two weeks later, he was the nominee of the Democratic Party” after winning the Iowa caucus.

“There’s nothing more offensive to the Iowa caucus-goer or the New Hampshire primary voter than being told by the national media this race is over with,” he added. “They take great exception to that.”

Picking the president: The candidates Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed. John McCain                Barack Obama

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