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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Clinton, Obama aides spar over Iraq


Aides to Sens. Clinton and Obama sparred over Iraq at a political forum Monday night.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A question about Iraq on the four-year anniversary of the start of the war in that country turned an otherwise routine political forum into a testy exchange Monday night between the top aides to Democratic presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Mark Penn, Clinton's pollster and chief strategist, was asked to explain at an event at Harvard University's Institute of Politics how voters could be sure the New York senator would not lead the country into "another quagmire" in the future given her 2002 vote authorizing the use of military force in Iraq.

Penn responded that Clinton is "not the kind of person" that would have started the Iraq war, then sought to highlight apparent inconsistencies in Obama's Iraq position. Though the first-term Illinois senator opposed the war in 2002, Penn noted, Obama said during his successful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign that he and President Bush held similar views on Iraq and that he was not sure how he would have voted on the use of military force had he been in Congress at the time. Penn also questioned why, in his view, Obama was not more outspoken on the war during his first year in the senate.(Watch video: CNN's Candy Crowley reports on the aides' spat)

Obama strategist David Axelrod bristled at the comments and accused Penn of misrepresenting the senator's past statements. He also asked whether the Clinton and Obama campaigns were going to spend the next ten months "savaging each other."

"Had we followed" Obama in 2002 "we wouldn't be talking about de-escalation," Axelrod said.

Penn said Clinton had taken responsibility for her 2002 vote and claimed that both senators' voting records in the senate on issues including the war are virtually identical. He also said the election would be about "the future" rather than positions held in 2002.

Some Democratic activists have criticized Clinton for not calling her Iraq vote a mistake. Obama and his advisors routinely mention his early opposition to the war.

Axelrod, Penn, and Jonathan Prince, the deputy campaign manager for former Sen. John Edwards, were part of a panel discussion on the early stages of the race for the Democratic nomination. As Axelrod and Penn sparred over Iraq, Prince jokingly pushed his chair to the back of the stage to get out of the crossfire.

Related: Dems favor Hillary Clinton for 2008, poll shows


-- CNN Senior Political Producer Sasha Johnson
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