But throughout the 90-minute debate, Mr. Obama was placed on the defensive, explaining his association with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., as well as his connection to a Chicago supporter who was a member of the Weatherman Underground, Bill Ayers, a former leader of the radical Weather Underground.
Those issues were raised in a tough round of questions posed by Mr. Stephanopoulos and Mr. Gibson, who in many ways presented a mirror image of earlier debates in which two NBC moderators, Tim Russert and Brian Williams, repeatedly pressed Mrs. Clinton with tough and provocative questions.
But if the moderators put Mr. Obama on the defensive, Mrs. Clinton pressed her advantage at every opportunity, at one point invoking the name of Louis Farrakhan, the National of Islam leader, who has endorsed Mr. Obama.
“This is a legitimate area,” she said, “as everything is when we run for office.”
Mrs. Clinton seemed well prepared to push the question of Mr. Ayers, citing details of Mr. Obama’s association with him. Mr. Obama, equally well prepared, responded by noting that Bill Clinton had, as president, pardoned the sentences of two other members of the Weather Underground. |
