MYRTLE BEACH (South Carolina), Jan 22: Bad blood and pent-up anger boiled over as Democratic foes Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seethed and accused one another of truth twisting in a rancorous 2008 campaign debate.

Obama charged Clinton with shilling for anti-union Wal-Mart as a corporate lawyer, while she snapped back he did the same for a slum landlord, in the most heated exchanges of a Democratic race careening to a testy climax.

The two senators stared one another down, gesticulated and constantly interrupted one another in a Democratic debate late Monday, ahead of the Jan 26 South Carolina primary, the next crucial milestone in the White House nominating marathon.

Obama, the Illinois senator striving to be the first black president of the United States, also lashed out at former president Bill Clinton, who is mounting an outspoken campaign on behalf of his wife.

“I can’t tell who I am running against sometimes,” said Obama, for whom Saturday’s primary is a must-win after two victories in a row by Clinton to avenge his opening win in the Iowa caucuses.

Obama all but accused the Clintons of lying about his opposition to the Iraq war, a comment he made that the Republicans had recently been the party of ideas, and what was painted as praise for Republican icon Ronald Reagan.

“There’s a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate,” Obama said.

Clinton rapped Obama over his opposition to the Iraq war, which she voted to authorise in 2002, saying he had not been consistent when the conflict had appeared to be going well.“You gave a great speech in 2002 opposing the war in Iraq,” the former first lady said.

“By the next year, you were telling reporters that you agreed with President Bush in his conduct of the war. And by the next year, when you were in the Senate, you were voting to fund the war time after time after time.” Both foes delved into one another’s personal history.

“While I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart,” Obama said, drawing applause from the audience.

Clinton did not take long to get her revenge, saying she was battling Republicans when Obama was practicing law and representing a campaign contributor she said ran a “slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.” As the third major Democratic candidate John Edwards struggled to get a word in, Clinton accused Obama of being unprepared for the damaging crossfire of top level US politics, saying she had fought off Republican attacks for years.

“Senator Obama, it is very difficult having a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote,” she said, accusing him of dodging tough votes on issues like sexual abuse, while an Illinois state legislator.

“It’s very difficult to get a straight answer.” One of the few moments of unity came when Obama and Clinton roasted President George Bush on the economy, as world stock markets plummeted for a second day on fears of a US recession.

Clinton accused Bush, who last week unveiled plans for an economic stimulus package, of not taking a mortgage foreclosure crisis “seriously enough.” “The President’s proposed stimulus package is inadequate, it is too little, too late.” Obama warned of dire economic times ahead.

“We could be sliding into an extraordinary recession unless we stimulate the economy,” the Illinois senator said.

“George Bush has made it worse, George Bush has consistently skewed our tax code to the wealthy.” “He has squandered billions of dollars in a war that should have never been authorised and never should have been waged,” he said referring to the Iraq war, which is fiercely unpopular with Democratic voters.

On the national holiday commemorating the birth of civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr., the two senators and Edwards earlier joined thousands of people — mostly black — for a procession and rally in the South Carolina capital.

Most polls give Iowa winner Obama a double-digit lead over the New York senator in South Carolina, which has a sizeable black community.—AFP