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Obama assailed on two fronts

As his lead grows, so do criticisms from Clinton and McCain of his capabilities.

Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters before addressing a Dallas rally. He told the crowd yesterday that "divisions and distractions . . . will not work in Texas."
Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters before addressing a Dallas rally. He told the crowd yesterday that "divisions and distractions . . . will not work in Texas."Read moreRICK BOWMER / Associated Press

On the eve of the first presidential debate in three weeks, Barack Obama yesterday found himself fielding highly similar attacks from both his Democratic rival and his prospective Republican opponent.

The gist of the criticism was that Obama, after only three years in the U.S. Senate, lacks the experience to be commander in chief and has proven nothing more in the campaign than the power of his oratory.

All of this has been said before, particularly by Hillary Rodham Clinton. But as Obama moves ever-closer to the Democratic nomination, the tone becomes more pointed, the language more explicit.

This came on the same day that Obama received the endorsement of the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which could help him in primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Clinton, in a morning speech in New York City, made the experience/competence case against Obama more sharply than on previous occasions, talking about the tough, solitary decisions a president must make.

"We need a president who's ready to do that," she said. "Only one of us is ready to do that on Day One."

And John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, elaborated on the criticism he had made Tuesday night - when he said that Obama offered only "the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate."

Yesterday McCain called Obama's approach to foreign policy "naive," citing a statement from the Democrat last summer that he would be willing to take action on al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan without that nation's consent.

"You don't broadcast and say you're going to bomb a country without their permission or without consulting them," McCain told reporters in Ohio. "It's just the fundamentals of the conduct of national security policy."

It remains to be seen what impact the oral assaults from Clinton and McCain will have on the Obama campaign heading into the big-delegate states of Texas and Ohio, with their primaries March 4.

The subject of readiness to be president is certain to come up tonight when Obama and Clinton hold a televised debate in Austin, Texas, their second one-on-one encounter.

"This is a legitimate question that he [Obama] would face if he were the nominee," Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, said yesterday of the question of Obama's readiness to command the military. "He's facing it from John McCain now."

It's possible that Democratic-primary voters will react to the criticism by taking a new look at the Obama-Clinton choice. Or they could resent seeing their front-runner assailed from both sides and rally to his defense.

Said Obama's communications director, Bill Burton: "These attacks will only remind voters that John McCain and Hillary Clinton both voted for a war in Iraq that allowed Osama bid Laden and al-Qaeda to escape across the border into Pakistan."

In Wisconsin, according to the exit polls, Obama won voters concerned with three of the competence-related issues Clinton has been focusing on - who is best qualified to be commander in chief, to run the economy, and to defeat McCain in the fall.

Other than response to attacks, the message from the Obama campaign - which has won the last 10 primaries and caucuses, including Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday - was that the candidate's lead among pledged delegates has taken on "big and meaningful" proportions.

"When the Clinton people say this is essentially a tie, this is lunacy," said David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager.

From the Clinton camp, the theme was "Two weeks, two debates."

The two weeks (12 days, now) left until Texas and Ohio, her aides said, give the candidate time to get her message out and to escape the "momentum-driven" politics of recent days.

The two debates - one tonight, the other Tuesday in Cleveland - make it easier for her to frame the choice, they say, and to demonstrate her command of the issues.

In a conference call with reporters, the aides yesterday refused to characterize Ohio and Texas as "must-win" for Clinton. But Wolfson, the communications director, did call those states "critically, critically important." And Bill Clinton, speaking in Beaumont, Texas, went further.

"If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think she'll be the nominee," the former president told supporters. "If you don't deliver for her, I don't think she can be."

Recent polls show her leading in both places, although by narrowing margins.

Throughout the campaign, Hillary Clinton has said that she was ready to be president on Day One. Yesterday, she gave that idea an emphasis, saying that she was the "only one" of the candidates ready to serve.

"It's time that we moved from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions," Clinton said in her New York speech, before flying to Texas for two evening events.

Obama, who held an afternoon rally in Dallas, said the choice was not between speeches and solutions.

"It's a choice between politics that offers more of the same divisions and distractions that didn't work in South Carolina and didn't work in Wisconsin and will not work in Texas," he said.

Tonight's debate is scheduled to start at 8 on CNN.

During the day, Obama received the endorsements of two New Jersey superdelegates - State Sen. Dana Redd of Camden, who had supported Clinton, and Donald Norcross, a member of the Democratic National Committee, who had been undecided.

Updated primary results, delegate counts, video and more at http://go.philly.com/campaign2008EndText