PHILADELPHIA, United States (AFP) — Democratic White House hopefuls fired a fusillade of attacks at front-runner Hillary Clinton late Tuesday, charging her of aiding in a rush to war with Iran and blundering on Iraq.
Clinton was also condemned for political "doubletalk" and rivals questioned her viability against a Republican in the 2008 general election, as the Democratic race hit new levels of intensity in the latest campaign debate.
Barack Obama and John Edwards went into the clash, just 65 days before the first party nominating contest in Iowa, knowing they must trim Clinton's double-digit opinion poll lead, or see their White House dreams dissolve.
Edwards, Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, hammered Clinton for voting for a Senate measure branding Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group, which critics said may be used as a justification for war.
"You give this president an inch, he will take a mile," Edwards said, and accused Clinton of political "doubletalk."
Clinton said her vote last month was intended to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Iran, in the hope it would renounce its nuclear program.
"I am not in favor of this rush for war, but I'm also not in favor of doing nothing," she said.
Senator Obama, struggling to match soaring expectations for his campaign, branded Clinton as one of the "co-authors" of the Iraq war, after her vote in 2002 authorize the Bush administration to invade Iraq.
He said Clinton later claimed the vote to threaten war was intended merely to stiffen US diplomacy against Saddam Hussein.
"That may be politically savvy, but I don't think that it offers the clear contrast that we need," he said.
Obama, absent from the Senate when the vote on Iran was taken, warned that measure was dangerous when "the president has been talking about World War III."
But neither Clinton, Edwards or Obama would definitively rule out military action against Iran.
Clinton's rivals claimed she changed positions with shifting political winds, and was so polarizing she may be unelectable nationally.
Obama said a Clinton presidency would mean a return to partisan turf-wars that soured the tenure of her husband Bill Clinton.
"It is the fight we have been through since the 90s," he said. "What we don't need is another eight years of bickering."
Edwards told Clinton, in perhaps her least impressive debate showing so far in the race, that she might be a gift to Republicans.
"They actually want to run against you -- that might be why they keep bringing you up," he said.
Clinton also ran into trouble over her apparently contradictory answer over whether illegal immigrants in New York should get drivers licenses.
"Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes, America is looking for a president ... who will be consistent," Edwards said.
Long-shot candidate Senator Christopher Dodd pondered whether Clinton could ever win a national election.
"Whether it's fair or not fair ... 50 percent of the American public say they are not going to vote for her."
Clinton argued that the fact her name was invoked by Republicans, proved she was a formidable foe.
Senator Joseph Biden, another long-shot candidate, took aim at Republican national front-runner Rudolph Giuliani, who trades heavily on his role as mayor of New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Rudy Giuliani -- probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency," Biden said, sparking a rare laugh from the audience.
"There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11 ... there's nothing else."
In another moment of levity, another long-shot candidate Dennis Kucinich admitted he believed that he had seen a UFO.
In a RealClearPolitics.com average of national opinion surveys, Clinton has a 26 point lead over Obama, with Edwards third.
But a new poll Monday showed a tight race in the crucial state of Iowa, which holds its fabled party nominating contests on January 3.
Clinton led the new University of Iowa survey with 28.9 percent, followed by Obama with 26.6 percent, with Edwards sliding on 20 percent.
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