Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential hopefuls – Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – clashed sharply over their stance on Pakistan, the Iraq war and other issues in a heated debate Tuesday night, one week before a pivotal group of primaries.
Seeking to regain lost momemtum, Mrs Clinton slammed Obama for having unwisely ‘threatened to bomb Pakistan’ if President Pervez Musharraf failed to act against Al-Qaeda militants.
“Last summer, he basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don’t think was a particularly wise position to take,” Mrs Clinton said in an effort to portray Obama as lacking foreign policy experience. “I have long advocated a much tougher approach to Musharraf and to Pakistan and have pushed the White House to do that,” she said ahead of next Tuesday’s crucial contests.
Obama, ahead in the race for the party’s nomination, denied that he threatened to bomb Pakistan in a speech last year.
“What I said was that if we have actionable intelligence against (Osama) bin Laden or other key Al-Qaeda officials … and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to strike against them, we should,” he said. 
Mrs. Clinton argued that she has a wider breadth of foreign policy experience that makes her more qualified to face off against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November 4 general election.
“I will have a much better case to make on a range of the issues that, really, America must confront going forward, and will be able to hold my own and make the case for a change in policy that will be better for our country,” she said.
Obama, who opposed the Iraq war from the start, also countered by criticizing Mrs Clinton’s Senate vote in 2002 authoritising the war. Twisting a line Mrs. Clinton often uses, he said she was ‘ready to give in to George Bush on Day One’ on Iraq and had helped Bush “drive the bus into the ditch.” He also said her stand on Iraq was “essentially similar” to Senator McCain’s “until (she) started running for president.”
McCain, an Iraq hawk, criticized Obama last week over his Pakistan remarks, as he also sought to paint the Illinois senator as too green to be commander-in-chief.
“Well, the best idea is to not broadcast what you’re going to do. That’s naive,” McCain told reporters in Columbus, Ohio.
Mrs. Clinton also said Obama chairs a subcommittee on Europe but had held no hearings on how to strengthen NATO’s hand in Afghanistan. 
Obama said Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has constantly sent out negative attacks. “We haven’t whined about it because I understand that this is the nature of these campaigns.”
The candidates also discussed a 2006 photograph of Obama in traditional Kenyan garments that appeared on the Web site The Drudge Report. The photograph was being circulated by Mrs. Clinton staffers, The Drudge Report said.
Mrs. Clinton told Obama she had no knowledge of her campaign being involved in the photograph’s dissemination.
“I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo,” Obama said

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