Clinton, Obama, At War Over War's End: Iraq is dominant issue in contest for Democratic nomination

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WP: Dan Balz's Take
Clinton and Obama, At War Over War's End

Barack Obama returned to Iowa today to lay out his newest plan to end the war in Iraq -- and to step up his sparring with Hillary Clinton. The question is whether the new policy adds up to a surge strategy for his campaign. No issue better highlights the arc of the Democratic nomination contest than the competition over the campaign's dominant issue. Obama and Clinton have circled one another throughout the year, matching Senate vote against vote and trying to trump one proposal against another proposal.

They were, as everyone knows, the last two to cast their votes on an Iraq funding bill that lacked a withdrawal timetable -- with both voting against the money. Neither likely would have done so were it not for their campaign competition. Today they were circling one another again. As Obama prepared to speak in Iowa, Clinton's office released a letter she was sending to President Bush. Clinton sought to preempt both Obama and the president....

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Clinton's campaign long has kept Obama in its focus for two reasons. He is the lone candidate among the big six who did oppose the war before it started, and he is the lone candidate who has out-muscled the mighty Clinton fundraising machine in the first two quarters of the year Neither of those two assets, however, has helped Obama move the polls. The evidence over many months is that Clinton's support for the war resolution in 2002 has done only minimal damage to her candidacy. Some Democrats cannot forgive her that vote, but overall, there is no large chorus calling on her to apologize, and among war critics, she leads the Democratic field.

The newest Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Clinton does equally well among those Democrats who favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq and among those who favor a more measured withdrawal. A new Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll of Democrats in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina posed a direct question on Iraq. "Regardless of your choice for president, who do you think would be best at ending the war in Iraq?" Clinton was the clear leader in all three states, doubling Obama's percentage in two and nearly doubling it in the third. However, two in 10 Democrats said they weren't sure who would be best.

Iraq has been critically important to Obama in helping to define his differences with Clinton and in his efforts to argue that a short resume in Washington does not mean he lacks the kind of judgment voters are seeking in a president. But neither of those arguments has translated into increased political support....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/12/post_69.html?hpid=topnews