"Clinton, Obama offer contrasting visions"

Ben Smith (Politico):

Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama offered an arena full of Iowans a sharp choice between her fierce partisanship and his more conciliatory vision, between "turning up the heat on the Republicans" and "a nation healed."

They addressed a crowd of Democratic activists on Saturday evening at the Iowa Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines, which marked the beginning of a breathless sprint to this state's caucuses January 3.

Obama's red-shirted supporters in the balconies won the tacit contest to make the most noise in the cold, crowded arena. Neither Obama nor former Senator John Edwards (N.C.) criticized Clinton by name, but both offered indictments of her judgment and capacity to bring change, and of the broader compromises of Clintonism.

The senator from New York, for her part, sought to turn the party's focus away from her and onto the White House and the Republican Party.

"I'm not interested in attacking my opponents, I'm interested in attacking the problems of America," Clinton said. "And I believe we should be turning up the heat on the Republicans. They deserve all the heat we can give them."

Clinton's speech was a sometimes-clunky litany of alleged Republican misdeeds, followed by the roaring call from her yellow-clad supporters to "turn up the heat."

"When the Republicans turn over our energy policy to the oil companies and deny global warming what do we do?" she asked.

"Turn up the heat!" her supporters responded. And she depicted herself as the battle-scarred fighter on whom Democrats can rely, arguing that Democrats should pick "a nominee who has been tested and elect a president who is ready to lead on day one."

Both Clinton and Edwards have suggested at times that Obama lacks the desire or capacity to fight, and he has tried to address that criticism by sharpening his attacks on President George W. Bush.

"We were promised a uniter, and we got a president who could not even lead the half of the country that voted for him," he said.

But Obama also seemed to criticize Clintonism as a mirror image of divisive Republican tactics, with a cynical focus on winning at any cost.

"I don't want to spend the next year or the next four years refighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s," he said "I don't want to pit red America against blue America – I want to be the president of the United States of America."

And he appeared to describe his main rival as a figure without clear principles.

"When I am your nominee, my opponent won't be able to say that I supported this war in Iraq, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran. And he won't be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether it's OK for America to use torture - because it's never OK."

Obama also appeared to reference the Clinton Administration when he denounced leading by polls.

The Democrats have "made the most difference in people's lives when we've led, not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction," he said, in an apparent reference to Bill Clinton's legendary reliance on polling.

(Obama's campaign does rely on a handful of pollsters, including one who polled for the Clinton White House.)

Obama's criticism of the Clinton 1990s echoed the criticism of Clinton's philosophy of governing that Edwards has voiced for months, and one he repeated Saturday night.

"We need desperately to elect a Democrat as the next President of the United States," Edwards said, looking in the direction of Hillary, a few yards away at her table. "But it is not enough."

"Look at what happened in the 1990s," Edwards said. "Drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists killed universal healthcare in the United States of America....We have a responsibility to change this system."

Speaking before Obama, and after Edwards, Clinton tried to answer her citics:

"There are some who will say they don't know where I stand…I stand where I have stood for 35 years – I stand with you and with your children and with every American who needs a fighter in their corner for a better life."

Howie P.S.: There are those that say Ben is a closeted Hillary supporter. The New York Times story may be more to their liking. The Washington Post story gives more attention to John Edwards and the other speakers. Another WaPo story on their political blog says "Edwards Recalls Legal Victories To Reinforce Outsider Image." Here's Barack Obama's speech at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner (video, 20:49).