Clinton, Obama slug it out in ‘battle for Ohio’

Prez hopefuls attack each other’s tactics in the final debate before pivotal March 4 primaries

WASHINGTON: Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama traded accusations over their positions on trade, their competing health-care plans and their records on the Iraq war in a final debate before pivotal March 4 presidential primaries.

The two found some common ground, vowing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico to include additional protections for US workers if elected as president. Still, they had sharp exchanges over past statements about the accord.

“It is inaccurate for Senator Clinton to say that she’s always opposed Nafta,” Obama said. “In her campaign for Senate, she said that Nafta, on balance, had been good for New York and good for America.”

Clinton said Obama’s statements and his campaign mailings on her positions were “erroneous”. “I have been a critic of Nafta from the very beginning,” she said. Nafta is “heavily disadvantaging many of our industries, particularly manufacturing.”

The debate at Cleveland State University sets the stage for the campaigning leading up to primaries next week in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island. Clinton, 60, is counting on Ohio and Texas to blunt Obama’s momentum after his 11 consecutive victories in primaries and caucuses since Feb. 5.

Racist vandals hit Barack’s Texas HQ
The headquarters for Obama’s Gregg County campaign and a phone service center was vandalised on Tuesday. The owner, Eddie Towles and his technicians found the words “a racist” spray painted on two company vans.   Not only was the writing on the vans, but spray painted on the wall of the front part of the building.
 
Eddie Towles says he feels the racial remarks were directed towards him. “I am not a racist! I take this personally. Now, I can not take my vans out with my technicians and service the good people of Longview,” he said.  Towles says he does not think his business would have been vandalized had it not been the headquarters for Barack Obama.

Obama slammed for ‘bomb Pak’ threat
Hillary Clinton slammed Barack Obama Tuesday for suggesting he would order a raid against Al-Qaeda inside Pakistan if Musharraf failed to act. Clinton has sought to paint Obama as lacking the foreign policy experience to be commander in chief.