Debate brings conflict to fore

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Sen. Barack Obama took his most aggressive tone yet last night, accusing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a South Carolina debate of dishonestly twisting his statements and record.

The two Democratic presidential candidates locked in a race for enough delegates to win the party nomination stood within arms' distance confronting each other on issues that before last night had mostly been fought by their campaign staff behind the scenes.

It was a stark contrast from last week's debate in Las Vegas where the candidates were cordial as they sat around a table.

At times last night, they were shouting over one another, with moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN attempting to bring the debate back under his control.

"We're just getting warmed up," said Mrs. Clinton, of New York.

Mr. Obama, of Illinois, defended himself against charges that he praised Republicans as having better ideas than Democrats, saying Mrs. Clinton was cherry-picking facts to put him in a negative light.

"What she said wasn't true," Mr. Obama insisted after she said he hadn't accounted for how he would pay for some of his programs, including foreign aid.

"This is one of the things that's happened during the course of this campaign, that there's a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate," he said. "And I think that part of what the people are looking for right now is somebody who's going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."

Mrs. Clinton, who shook her head several times as Mr. Obama spoke, argued that he takes politically convenient positions on different days.

"It is sometimes difficult to understand what Senator Obama has said, because as soon as he is confronted on it, he says that's not what he meant," she said.