WASHINGTON: After her campaign caused a flap over Barack Obama's past drug use, Hillary Clinton was gently jabbed by her rival as Democrats held their last debate before US voters start choosing the contenders in the 2008 presidential race.
The two leading Democrats Thursday joined four other candidates for 90 minutes of polite sparring in Iowa, the state that kicks off the presidential race on Jan 3 with Clinton under pressure to confirm her standing as the party's front-runner.
All six agreed they would end US military involvement in Iraq, do more than the Bush administration to fight global warming and reform education policies if elected to the White House on Nov 4, 2008.
Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards offered some of the most visceral rhetoric, pledging to curb "corporate power and corporate greed" and fight for average Americans.
But it is Clinton, the former first lady, who is accused of getting dirty as she faces a growing challenge by Obama, a fellow US senator offering a hopeful message of change and positive politics.
On Thursday, Clinton apologized to Obama on the airport tarmac in Washington for comments by a senior Clinton campaign official, who said Obama's admitted use of cocaine and marijuana in his late teens would hurt his election chances, the Washington Post reported.
"She made it clear that this kind of negative personal statement has no part in this campaign," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer was quoted as saying.
The issue was not raised during Thursday's televised debate in Des Moines, the Iowa state capital. But Obama landed a barb when a viewer asked how he could deliver a break from the past while taking advice from former aides in Bill Clinton's administration.
"What are you laughing at?" Hillary Clinton challenged. Obama briefly seemed flustered, then jabbed back.
"Well, Hillary, I'm looking forward to you advising me as well," he said, winning laughs and applause.
Clinton has led the Democratic field in national polls all year. But the race is much narrower in Iowa, where voters gather next month for presidential preference polls known as caucuses.
Winners in Iowa and the first primary vote, held in New Hampshire five days later, gain critical momentum for their party's nomination to run in the presidential election.
Republican Party candidates held their final pre-caucus debate in Iowa Wednesday. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a millionaire businessman, is running neck-and-neck in Iowa with one- time Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who has surged with a campaign driven by his low-key persona and his Baptist faith.
