WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton Monday portrayed her Democratic foe Barack Obama as a dangerous risk on foreign affairs, implying he would need an instruction manual on the world's hot-spots if elected president.
Clinton, battling to revive her flagging White House campaign before last-stand nominating clashes in Ohio and Texas on March 4, said only she was tested and ready to sit behind the Oval Office desk.
"With me, this is not theoretical," Clinton said, in what was billed by her campaign as a "major" foreign policy address in Washington.
"The American people don't need to guess whether I understand the issues, or whether I need a foreign policy instruction manual to guide me through a crisis, or whether I have to rely on advisors to introduce me to global affairs."
The New York senator took aim at Obama over his stated willingness to offer presidential-level talks to sworn US foes.
"I will not pencil in the leaders of Iran, and North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba on the presidential calendar without preconditions, until we have assessed through lower level diplomacy, the motivations and intentions of these dictators."
"We simply cannot legitimize rogue regimes or weaken American prestige by impulsively agreeing to presidential-level talks that have no preconditions," she said in the speech at George Washington University.
"It may sound good, but it doesn't meet the real world test of foreign policy."
Senator Obama has said that the United States should not be afraid to speak to its enemies, but stresses that no such talks should take place without careful preparations.
Clinton also rebuked her rival, who has won 11 straight nominating contests, for "advocating rash unilateral military action" -- an apparent reference to his vow last year to strike Al-Qaeda in Pakistan if Islamabad would not, given actionable intelligence.
"In this moment of peril and promise we need a president who is tested and ready," Clinton said.
The Obama campaign had earlier taken a pre-emptive strike at Clinton before she gave her speech, accusing her of harboring shortsighted views and of being guilty of several huge misjudgments on foreign affairs.
It highlighted her Senate vote to authorize war in Iraq, in 2002, which Obama opposed, though he was not in the chamber at the time.
Obama aides also accused Clinton of joining "neo-conservative drumbeat" for war with Iran over her vote for a measure which designated Tehran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
"Those are critical foreign policy judgments, they are judgments that any candiate should be held accountable for," said Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice.
"When we talk about experience, it is important to look at not only years on the seat but the substance of that experience."
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