Though Caucuses Loom, Democrats Tone It Down at Iowa's Black and Brown Forum

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: December 2, 2007

DES MOINES, Dec. 1 — Markedly shifting their tone of recent weeks, the Democratic presidential candidates had a largely friendly exchange Saturday night at a debate devoted to black and Hispanic interests, though they expressed some differences over Cuba, drug sentencing and health care.

The debate, an Iowa tradition called the Black and Brown Forum, came after two weeks of barbed attacks on one another by the three Democrats who are in a tight race here — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Yet at the two-hour televised forum, Mrs. Clinton trained her fire on the Republican presidential candidates, accusing them of “demagoguing” illegal immigrants, and Mr. Edwards and Mr. Obama agreed with each other that the minimum wage should rise to $9.50 and increase regularly....

For all of the good will, with the Iowa caucuses less than five weeks away, the candidates did take opportunities to draw distinctions between each other. While the Democrats said they wanted to change drug sentencing laws for crack and powder cocaine to erase racial disparities in punishments — more blacks and Hispanics are convicted for crack possession and sales, which carry heavier penalties — Mrs. Clinton said she had problems with making any sentencing changes apply to people already convicted....

On the issue of Cuba, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Biden said they did not favor normalizing relations while Fidel Castro was still in power. Mr. Dodd and Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio said they favored working toward change now....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/politics/02campaign.html