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Politics

Candidates put on the spot

Several Democrats say at a debate they can't guarantee a total withdrawal from Iraq by 2013.

HANOVER, N.H. - The leading Democratic presidential hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by 2013, the end of the next president's first term.

"I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Sensing an opening, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson provided the assurances the others would not.

"I'll get the job done," said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office.

The opening question instantly plunged the eight contenders into the issue that has dominated previous debates: the war in Iraq.

With the primary season approaching, all eight have vied with increasing intensity for the support of antiwar voters likely to provide money and organizing muscle as the campaign progresses.

Foreign policy blended with domestic issues at the two-hour debate, and several of the Democrats endorsed payroll tax increases to assure a stable Social Security system.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, as well as Dodd, Obama and Edwards all said they would apply the tax to income now exempted.

Richardson said he wouldn't and Clinton refused to say.

Current law levies a 6.2 percent payroll tax only on an individual's first $97,000 in annual income.

Biden also said he was willing to consider gradually raising the retirement age, which is now 67.

Kucinich said that while he favors taxing additional income, he wants to return the retirement age to 65, where it stood until the law was changed in 1983.

Health care, and the drive for universal coverage, also figured prominently in the debate.

"I intend to be the health care president," said Clinton, adding she can now succeed at an undertaking that defeated her in 1993 when she was first lady.

But Biden said that unnamed special interests were no more willing to work with Clinton now than they were more than a decade ago.

A question about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 drew a cheer from the students listening in the Dartmouth auditorium - and expressions of support only from former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska and Kucinich.

Asked whether they were prepared to use force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, several of the hopefuls sidestepped. Instead, they said, all diplomacy must be exhausted in the effort.

Moderator Tim Russert of NBC News asked about Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's pledge to set back Iran by eight to 10 years if it tries to gain nuclear standing.

Biden flashed anger at the mention of the former New York mayor. "Rudy Giuliani doesn't know what the heck he's talking about," said Biden, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"He's the most uninformed person on foreign policy that's now running for president."

The debate unfolded in the state that has held the first presidential primary in every campaign for generations. The contest is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 22, but that is expected to change as other states maneuver for early voting positions.

The debate was broadcast on MSNBC, New Hampshire Public Radio and New England Cable News.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 00:33:26]