The foreign-policy spat between Democratic presidential rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has put their differences on display, but it has also opened a window for the second-tier 2008 White House hopefuls.
Experienced candidates trailing the two front-runners were able to take their gloves off in the past two weeks, targeting Mr. Obama as inexperienced and touting themselves as better equipped to lead the country.
“If we’re going to regain our national security and restore our position in the world, it will take strong, proven leadership,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. “I have been involved in every major foreign-policy debate of the last quarter-century and helped resolve conflicts around the world, and I will bring that experience with me to the White House.”
Both Mr. Dodd and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware have capitalized in recent weeks, and point out their experience can be tracked not by years but by decades.
The dust-up was timed nicely for Mr. Biden, whose recently released book “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics” outlines his 34 years of foreign-policy experience.
The Clinton-Obama tiff “does raise questions about whether or not the future leader of the United States of America, whoever among us that may be, gets a sense of what’s going on,” Mr. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Fox News last week.
The race has been defined by foreign policy lately, after Mr. Obama of Illinois said in a debate last month he would meet leaders of rogue nations such as Iran without preconditions his first year in office if elected. Mrs. Clinton of New York called his position “irresponsible” and “naive,” igniting their spat.
Mr. Biden called the disagreement “petty,” a distraction from the real issues, and said it “will not get our troops home any sooner.”
Mr. Dodd jumped in with a press release. “Clinton, Obama both wrong,” the release blared, calling Mrs. Clinton’s response “overly-rigid” and Mr. Obama’s “overly-simplistic.”
While admonishing the press, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama for keeping the fight alive, the candidates also are aiming to play the role of the adult in the room, their staffers say privately.
After the diplomatic dust-up died down, Mr. Biden and Mr. Dodd got new opportunities to highlight their years of service Aug. 1 when Mr. Obama gave a speech titled “The War We Need to Win.”
“The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Mr. Obama said.
He said he would put conditions on U.S. military aid to Pakistan, and the nation “must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan.”
“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will,” he said.
Mrs. Clinton said presidential candidates should not always speak their mind because a speech “has consequences around the world.”
The speech prompted the Biden campaign to label the junior senator a Johnny-come-lately because “much of what Senator Obama has proposed, Senator Biden has already initiated or accomplished.”
The Biden release also noted that Mr. Obama “did not address Afghanistan or Al Qaeda or Taliban” during a Jan. 30 Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan and instead asked about the “stunning level of mercury in fish.”
Mr. Dodd dismissed Mr. Obama’s Pakistan remarks as “unwise,” “confusing and irresponsible,” and engaged the junior senator during a debate last week.
“Words mean things,” said Mr. Dodd, who has since created a “Dodd vs. Obama” section on his campaign Web site. “We’ve got to be very careful about language that’s used in terms of the danger and harm it can do to our nation.”
Mr. Biden got in his own subtle smackdown during the debate last week when Mr. Obama mistakenly referenced the “president of Canada” and he was able to follow with the correct “prime minister” title.
On “The Daily Show” later in the week, Mr. Biden said it wouldn’t have been a memorable gaffe had Mr. Obama’s foreign-policy credentials not already been under scrutiny lately. “It’s a rough game,” he said.
In the book, Mr. Biden portrays himself as a go-to senator on foreign affairs, and notes that President Bush called him to the White House early in his first term, ordering: “Brief me on Europe.”
He evokes his credentials often on the campaign trail.
“I know most of the world leaders — not because I’m so important — because I grew up with them politically. I’ve been there a long time. I went to conferences when they were in conferences 20 or 30 years ago,” Mr. Biden told Iowa City voters last month.
But the gray-haired message isn’t resonating in the polls, which still show Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in the top three spots.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, coming in a close fourth in most national polls, told the Associated Press the spat has improved his standing because “the public is getting a little fed up with the Clinton-Obama fighting.”
“Voters are seeing not only that I’ve got the most experience, but I also can bring change,”said Mr. Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations.
In Iowa, he scoffed at the argument over rogue leaders, saying: “I’ve already talked to them,” according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
National Journal recently listed the foreign leaders each Democratic hopeful has met with during their careers. Mr. Biden led the pack with more than 100, followed by Mr. Dodd, with just under 100; Mrs. Clinton, the former first lady, with 90; and Mr. Richardson with 21.
Mr. Dodd criticized Mrs. Clinton’s recent speech on the subprime mortgage lending crisis and noted he “has already taken leadership” on the issue, and that “addressing the crisis will require more than rhetoric on the campaign trail.”
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