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Seizing on Pakistani tragedy, candidates tout world prowess

By Times Wires
Published December 28, 2007

News of Benazir Bhutto's assassination came just hours before Sen. Barack Obama delivered what his campaign had billed as the "closing argument" in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in Denison, Iowa, on Thursday, forcing his campaign to scramble to incorporate the news into his message of change.

For his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bhutto's death helped underscore the line she has been driving home for months - who is best suited to lead the nation at a time of international peril. She described Bhutto Thursday in terms Obama could not: as a fellow mother, a pioneering woman following in a man's footsteps, and a longtime peer on the world stage.

The differing reactions of Clinton and Obama to the assassination of the Pakistani opposition leader crystallized the debate between the two just a week before Iowans will decide the first contest in the presidential battle.

"I have known Benazir Bhutto for more than 12 years; she's someone whom I was honored to visit as first lady when she was prime minister," Clinton said at a firehouse in western Iowa. "Certainly on a personal level, for those of us who knew her, who were impressed by her commitment, her dedication, her willingness to pick up the mantle of her father who was also assassinated, it is a terrible, terrible tragedy."

Three hours after the news broke, Obama delivered a withering rebuke to Clinton's experience, depicting her lengthy political resume as a hindrance to solving big problems, including crises overseas. In an especially charged moment, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod later tied the killing to the ongoing war in Iraq - and Clinton's vote to approve the latter, which he argued diverted U.S resources from fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, both hotbeds for al-Qaida.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who have made terrorism central to their Republican presidential campaigns, emphasized their ability to cope with unpredictable threats Thursday after the assassination.

At a morning rally in Urbandale, Iowa, McCain said that he alone among his Republican rivals has the credentials to deal with national security threats posed by Islamic jihadists.

In Broward County, Giuliani said the assassination serves as another example of why the United States needs to "go on offense" against Islamic terrorism and expand its forces in Afghanistan to block the possible resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Iowa ad campaignsrev up to record levels

The campaigns are spending much more money flooding the Iowa airwaves and the Internet than candidates did in 2004, hoping to sway the large number of undecided voters after months of on-the-ground appeals.

In one of her biggest expenditures of the campaign in Iowa, advisers said Thursday, Clinton is spending more than $20,000 to broadcast a two-minute taped message during every 6 p.m. newscast in Iowa on the eve of the caucuses, Wednesday. Mitt Romney is preparing a new advertising blitz this weekend in hopes of stemming the momentum of his breakaway rival in Iowa, Mike Huckabee.

And signaling the sharpening tone to the ads, Giuliani released a commercial Thursday that invokes the imagery of Sept. 11.

The Democrats are spending by far the most on television advertising here, and smashing records in the process. Obama has spent the most, at $8.3-million, Clinton has spent $6.5-million, and John Edwards has spent $2.7-million, according to CMAG, a firm that tracks political ads.

GOP candidates have spent a total of $9.5-million on Iowa ads.

Information from the New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified December 28, 2007, 01:17:38]