Clinton takes on rivals, Rove in debate

ByABC News
August 20, 2007, 6:30 AM

DES MOINES -- The strengths and vulnerabilities of two leading Democratic presidential candidates were spotlighted in a debate Sunday as Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her electability and Barack Obama said he is ready to be president.

The 90-minute session at Drake University marked the first Democratic debate in the state that will kick off the nominating process in January. And the race here could not be tighter. The latest ABC News poll has Obama at 27%, Clinton at 26% and former North Carolina senator John Edwards at 26%.

As the Democrats debated on a special edition of ABC's This Week, departing White House strategist Karl Rove was on Sunday morning talk shows elaborating on his description of Clinton last week as a "fatally flawed" candidate.

"She enters the primary season with the highest negatives of any front-runner since the history of polling began," Rove said on CBS' Face the Nation. That will be hard to change, he added.

"I find it interesting he's so obsessed with me," Clinton said when debate host George Stephanopoulos brought up Rove's comments. She said high negatives she had a 49% unfavorable rating in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll this month are inevitable for the eventual Democratic nominee.

"The idea that you're going to escape the Republican attack machine and not have high negatives by the time they're through with you, I think, is just missing what's been going on in American politics for the last 20 years," the New York senator said.

Obama said the Democrat who wins the nomination will win the election. But he implied Clinton is part of the problems and attitudes that "pre-date the Bush administration" including conventional thinking, backbiting, special interest influence and divisive politics.

"We're going to need somebody who can break out of the political patterns that we've been in over the last 20 years," Obama said. "I'm your guy."

Edwards said if Democrats "become the party of status quo in 2008, that's a loser." He said lobbyists "stand between us and the change America needs," and his legal experience taking on corporations makes him "the candidate who can bring change."