Campaign for the White House

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 2, 2007 — -- The room at the Washington Hilton was packed with Democratic activists, consultants, fundraisers and party leaders -- the support of whom is key for any successful presidential nomination campaign. So the White House hopefuls came to the winter meeting of the Democratic National Convention to make their distinct pitches.

Presumed front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said, "there is another kind of experience that we're going to need in 2008. I know a thing or two about winning campaigns."

She also added in a list of potential Democratic achievements -- fixing health care, stopping global warming, ending the genocide in Darfur -- saying that Democrats "can make history and remake our country's future. We can elect the first woman president."

Four years ago, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, now the chairman of the DNC, won plaudits and notice by distinguishing himself at this meeting as "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party."

Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., seemed eager to claim that mantle today, applauding labor unions and talking about poverty. "Democrats have always been the party who stood with the frail, with the children, with the elderly … Brothers and sisters, in times like these, we don't need to redefine the Democratic Party.  We need to reclaim the Democratic Party."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who will formally declare his candidacy next weekend, continued to talk about hope and national unity.

"Where there's cynicism, hope is always stronger," he said to applause. "That's what we offer in this campaign. That's what we offer the American people: hope."

Iraq Stance Defined

For some candidates, it was a time to introduce themselves to the crowd. "Today, and over the coming 12 months," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., "I'm standing before you to ask you to give me a chance, to give me a chance to be heard, to make my case for my candidacy."

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark used his military background to distinguish himself. "I helped prevent a war in Korea, helped end a war in Bosnia, and commanded the forces that won a war in Europe to stop ethnic cleansing by the Serbs and we won it without losing a single American life in combat," Clark said.

Clark was providing his bona fides not merely to make his case, but to bash the Bush administration over the central issue of our day: the war in Iraq. "I've done coalition-building, peacekeeping and postwar reconstruction," Clark said. "And this administration has failed in every one of those things."

And it was on this subject where the three front-runners -- Clinton, Edwards and Obama -- tried to distinguish themselves from one another.

"I was opposed to this invasion -- publicly, frequently -- before it began," Obama said to applause. "I thought it was a tragic mistake." A "mistake," he didn't have to say, made by fellow candidates Clinton, Edwards, Dodd, and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., all of whom voted to go to war in Iraq.

But that was then, this is now -- and now is the beginning of a very long presidential primary season.

'Power to Stop Escalation of War'

Clinton introduced new rhetoric today, saying not only that she wouldn't vote the same way today, but that "if I had been president in October of 2002, I would not have started this war."

And yet, many Democrats think expressing disapproval of the war -- as the Senate will likely do next week -- is not enough. They want it ended now.

"Next week, we will debate in the United States Senate a nonbinding resolution on the war in Iraq," Dodd noted. "Frankly, I am disappointed that we can't find a way to do more than send a meaningless message to the White House."

But Edwards -- who has called for the immediate redeployment of 40,000 U.S. troops out of Iraq -- was perhaps most pointed. "We cannot be satisfied with passing nonbinding resolutions that we know this president will ignore," he said. "We have the power to stop the escalation of this war. We have to use this power, we have to be strong, we have to do what's right."

In comments that many interpreted as being aimed at Clinton, who supports that nonbinding resolution, Edwards said that "George Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove … are counting on us to be weak, to be political and to be careful. This is not the time for political calculation."

Clinton -- the only one heckled by anti-war activists today -- was talking up that resolution when her speech was interrupted by anti-war activists.

"If we can get a large, bipartisan vote to disapprove this president's plan for escalation, that will be the first time that we will have said no to President Bush and began to reverse his policies," she said as a small group of activists from Code Pink tried to shout her down.

"I want to go further," she explained, defensively. "I proposed capping the troop levels." But movement in a Senate divided 51-49 was not easy, she insisted. "Believe me, I understand the frustration and the outrage. You have to have 60 votes to cap troops, to limit funding to do anything. If we in Congress don't end this war before January 2009, as president, I will."

Audience Remains Split

Democrats in attendance seemed divided among the three front-runners. "I got up there and saw a woman standing in front of me saying 'when I am president,'" said Miriam Callahan, a member of the College Democrats of American University. "I've never seen that before and that really resonated with me."

"I was really inspired by John Edwards," said Louisianian Stephen Handwerk, of the Stonewall Democrats. "I wasn't expecting that."

Added Jamie Edwards, of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians in Minnesota: "I think Barack has a presence. He's able to articulate a clear message that's visionary for the country."

Democrats have almost a year before the first of them will vote in the Iowa caucuses; the war in Iraq -- and the battle within the Democratic party over that war -- will likely still be waging then.

Toni L. Wilson, and Greg McCown contributed to this report.