Democrats call a truce in 2008 campaign fight

JOHNSTON, Iowa (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the other Democratic presidential contenders called a brief truce in their campaign-trail battles on Thursday during a polite Iowa debate that focused on the economy and featured few disagreements.

In their final encounter before Iowa opens the race for the White House in three weeks, the low-key debate gave the Democrats a last chance to make their case to voters and tout their plans to ease the financial burden of Americans and change the nature of Washington.

Clinton and Obama, locked in a tight three-way battle atop Iowa polls with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, called a temporary halt in their heated campaign clashes over their relative experience, judgment and electability.

Iowa kicks off the state-by-state battle to choose candidates for the November 2008 election on January 3, with New Hampshire following five days later.

Most of the Democrats said they could begin to balance the budget by ending the war in Iraq and ending tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans.

"It's important that we recognize how people feel in Iowa and across America. They feel as though they're standing on a trap door. They are one pink slip, one missed mortgage payment, one medical diagnosis away from falling through," said Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady whose lead in national polls over Obama has dwindled in recent weeks.

Obama, an Illinois senator, said balancing the budget would take longer than the first year or two of his administration.

"We're not going to be able to do this unless we're able to overcome some of the special interests that have clogged up the system and created trillions of dollars worth of tax loopholes and tax breaks," he said.

Edwards said ending the tax breaks for the most wealthy Americans and ending the influence of special interests in Washington would aid the economy.

"The truth of the matter is that the tax policy in America has been established by big corporations and the wealthiest Americans. That's why we have tax breaks for the top 1 percent and 2 percent," he said.

Obama's steady rise in opinion polls in recent weeks has raised the intensity of his campaign battle with Clinton, while Edwards has tried to stay out of the fray in recent weeks.

That was easy on Thursday, when the candidates were not asked to discuss any of their recent fights over electability or Obama's voting record in the Senate and as an Illinois state senator.

The debate came the day after one of Clinton's New Hampshire co-chairman, Bill Shaheen, raised the issue of Obama's past drug use and said it could be used against him in the campaign by Republicans.

The Clinton campaign denied any plans to use the issue, and Shaheen stepped down from the campaign. Obama wrote in his autobiography about his past drug use as a youth.

"I deeply regret my comments yesterday and say again that they were in no way authorized by Sen. Clinton or the Clinton campaign," Shaheen said in resigning.

Aides to both candidates said Clinton had apologized to Obama over the remarks.

Clinton said during the debate she would run an open government, despite the criticism she has received over the failure of Bill Clinton's presidential library to release her papers as first lady.

"I want to have an open and transparent government. I have put forth very specific plans for how I would reform the government, put as much as we can on the Internet," she said.

Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden received support from his rivals when he was asked about several campaign-trail gaffes related to race, including calling Obama "clean and articulate." Biden said he had a long record of supporting civil rights issues.

"My credentials are as good as anyone who has ever run for president of the United States on civil rights," he said, drawing cheers and applause from his rivals and an endorsement from Obama, who is black.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, trailing the leaders in fourth place in polls, said he was fond of Iowa's voters. "You like underdogs, and you like to shake things up," he said.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

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