Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed sharply over health care in a debate on Tuesday, accusing each other of misrepresenting their approaches to offering coverage for 47 million uninsured Americans.
AP
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Clinton, hoping to blunt Obama's growing momentum before nominating contests next week in the big states of Ohio and Texas, went on the attack from the beginning of a debate at Cleveland State University.
"It's been unfortunate that Senator Obama has consistently said that I would force people to have health care whether they could afford it or not," the New York senator said.
"I have a great deal of respect for Senator Obama, but we have differences and in the last several days, some of those differences in tactics and the choices that Senator Obama's campaign has made ... about my health care plan and my position on NAFTA have been very disturbing to me."
Clinton has criticized campaign literature sent to Ohio voters that she said mischaracterized her health care proposal, which included mandates requiring Americans to purchase health insurance.
AP
Barack Obama
Obama, an Illinois senator, said Clinton had frequently misrepresented his plan, which does not include mandates and which some critics suggest could leave 15 million Americans uninsured.
Obama said he was interested in bringing the cost of health care down and making coverage more affordable, and enforcing mandates could create a burden on some low-income Americans.
Clinton's criticisms, he said, were part of a consistent patter of negative attacks on him.
"Senator Clinton has ... constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls, flyers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns," he said.
"But to suggest somehow that our mailing is somehow different from the kinds of approaches that Senator Clinton has taken throughout this campaign I think is simply not accurate.
The face-off was the final debate before next Tuesday's crucial contests in Texas and Ohio. Clinton needs to win in both states to blunt the momentum of Obama, who has run off 11 straight victories in nominating contests for the Democratic nomination ahead of November's presidential election.
With her campaign on the line, Clinton has aggressively attacked Obama in the past few days, including questioning his readiness to become commander in chief.
That was a switch in tone from last week's largely cordial debate in Texas, where Clinton at one point said she was honored to share a debate stage with Obama.