By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer
CLEVELAND " Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama focused early in their debate Tuesday night on universal health care and made little mention of Ohio-centered issues that could prove key in winning votes during next week's primary.
Both candidates argued whether Clinton's health care proposal required citizen participation.
Clinton argued Obama's plan would leave out 15 million people and said her health care plan would limit the premium payments citizens would have to pay based on their income.
"I would cover nearly everybody at a much lower cost than Sen. Obama's plan," Clinton said.
Obama said he believes their plans are very similar.
"The reason she thinks that there are more people covered under her plan than mine is because of a mandate," Obama said. "If the subsidies aren't adequate, then the burden is on them and they will be penalized."
Both candidates worked to transition into the issue of Ohio's struggling economy and the potential to create green-collar jobs in the state based on a national demand for alternative energy. Their brief focus on Ohio resulted from a question by debate moderator and NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams.
Williams prompted a debate over their history of supporting NAFTA " an argument which, in recent days, has been limited mostly to personal attacks by both candidates through their campaign Web sites. Co-moderator and NBC news analyst Tim Russert continued questioning both candidates and quoted Clinton as supporting the agreement in past speeches.
Russert asked both candidates if within six months in office as president whether they would opt out of the trade agreement, which also includes Canada and Mexico.
Clinton said she would renegotiate the deal's core labor and environmental standards to the benefit of U.S. workers.
"This is a big issue in Ohio, and I have laid out my criticism, but, in addition, my plan for actually fixing NAFTA," Clinton said.
Obama agreed with Clinton's response and said the deal needs to be reworked to benefit struggling communities and not global corporations.
"We need to use the hammer of potential opt-out as leverage to get environmental and labor standards enforced," Obama said.
Both candidates have exhibited strong differences on issues yet with similar positions and endorsements. Obama has gained the support of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Clinton garnered former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell's endorsement. Both share local support, with separate Clinton and Obama groups forming on the campus of Kent State University.
Hours before the debate, outside the CSU Wolstein Center, Clinton supporters chanted on one sidewalk while Obama supporters gathered across the street. Polls released this week show Ohio voters are not as clearly divided on who they believe should receive the Democratic nomination for president.
In Ohio, a poll released this week by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute of Connecticut showed Clinton was the choice among 51 percent of 741 likely Ohio Democratic primary voters polled last week, while 40 percent of those voters favored Obama. Two weeks prior, the same poll showed likely voters favored Clinton 55 percent to Obama with 34 percent.
The latest New York Times CBS News poll, released hours before Tuesday's debate, showed 54 percent of approximately 1,300 registered Democratic primary voters polled across the country said they wanted to see Obama nominated, while 38 percent said they wanted to see Clinton receive the nomination.
A USA Today Gallup poll released Monday and taken between Feb. 21 and 24 showed a similar gain with 51 percent of voters pulling for Obama and 39 percent for Clinton.
The first 45 minutes of the debate centered around both candidates criticizing each other's past stances and opinions on national issues. Clinton made no mention of the leading Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, yet Obama referred several times to his need as a Democrat to be able to debate the Arizona senator.
Obama also pressed the need for retaining middle-class jobs as a key to boosting the country's economy.
"We haven't been looking at what's good for communities here in Ohio, in my home state of Illinois, and across the country," Obama said. "When I go to these plants, I meet people who are proud of their jobs. They are proud of the products that they have created And when they see jobs shipped overseas and suddenly they're left not just without a job, but without health care, without a pension."
Sharing a similar opinion as Obama, as both candidates did throughout the party debate, Clinton again stressed a need to provide more support to middle-class citizens and less to larger corporations.
"So part of what we have to do here is recognize that the special interests are not going to give up without a fight," Clinton said. "And I believe that I am a fighter, and I will fight for the people of Ohio and the people of America."