Gloves off as Clinton, Obama spar over worst 'dictators'

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democratic White House rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ripped into each other in their first big showdown of the 2008 race, over when to talk to US enemies like Iran and North Korea.

As simmering antagonism burst into the open, Clinton said her top challenger was "irresponsible and frankly naive" for saying he would meet what her campaign dubbed the "world's worst dictators" in his first year as president.

In a dueling interview with a newspaper in the key electoral state of Iowa, Obama hit back, arguing that what was "irresponsible and naive" was Clinton's 2002 Senate vote to send US soldiers to Iraq without an exit strategy.

The row erupted after a debate in South Carolina on Monday featuring a question about talking to US foes Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran and Syria.

Democratic front-runner Clinton spoke to the newspaper first, drawing an Obama riposte rejecting her implication he would rush into talks and linking her with President George W. Bush's refusal to talk to such US foes.

"What she's somehow maintaining is my statement could be construed as not having asked what the meeting was about,"
Obama, a 45-year-old first-term senator vying to be America's first black president was quoted as saying.

"I didn't say these guys were going to come over for a cup of coffee some afternoon," he said in an audio interview on the Quad City Times website.

"This is a fabricated controversy."

Obama has repeatedly stressed he was opposed to the Iraq war, and highlights Clinton's vote to authorize it -- before he was in the Senate -- even as she has turned increasingly against the unpopular conflict.

Earlier, Madeleine Albright, former president Bill Clinton's last secretary of state, praised the former first lady's more nuanced answer at the debate, that she was open to diplomatic contacts but wary of handing US enemies a propaganda coup.

"I felt that she gave a very sophisticated answer that showed her understanding of the whole process," Albright said.

"It is necessary to have lower-level people make the initial contact," said Albright, who in the waning days of the Clinton administration traveled to North Korea to meet Stalinist leader Kim Jong-Il.

"She really understood the process, the value of the presidency."
In a memo, the Clinton campaign said the debate revealed a clear difference between their candidate and Obama.

"Senator Obama has committed to presidential-level meetings with some of the world's worst dictators without precondition during his first year in office. "Senator Clinton is committed to vigorous diplomacy but understands that it is a mistake to commit the power and prestige of America's presidency years ahead of time by making such a blanket commitment."

Obama's campaign spokesman Bill Burton countered that his man had used the debate to display "judgement he will exhibit as commander in chief."

"He showed his willingness to lead and ask tough questions on matters of war and he offered a dramatic change from the Bush administration's seven-year refusal to protect our security interests by using every tool of American power available -- including diplomacy," Burton said.

In Monday's debate, sponsored by CNN and YouTube, a questioner asked if candidates would "be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea."

Obama answered "I would. The reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous."

He noted Republican president Ronald Reagan and Democratic president John F. Kennedy had spoken to the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Clinton declined to promise to meet with such leaders during the first year of her administration, saying she favored diplomatic openings but was wary of handing a US adversary a propaganda coup by invoking the prestige of the presidency.