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He touts her presidential hopes

At senatorial debate, candidate Spencer suggests Hillary's "a tremendous candidate"

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

October 23, 2006

Would-be first lady Elizabeth Edwards may have claimed her life is "more joyful" than Hillary Rodham Clinton's, but the former first lady says she loves her life, particularly the parts that include daughter Chelsea.

Clinton made the remarks during a Senate debate yesterday with her Republican opponent John Spencer, who surprised the incumbent by remarking that she'd make a tremendous presidential candidate - quickly adding that he'd never, ever vote for her.

"Senator Clinton would make a tremendous candidate for president of the United States but not at the expense of New Yorkers," Spencer said during a face-off at the Manhattan studios of WABC-TV, which was attended by former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Spencer's low-octane first debate in Rochester Friday night was nearly upstaged by the velvet-gloved slap - and subsequent apology - by John Edwards' wife. The former North Carolina senator may run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

"I think my choices have made me happier," said Elizabeth Edwards, a stay-at-home mother who is also a lawyer. "I think I'm more joyful than she is."

Clinton offered a spirited defense of her own happiness during yesterday's debate. "I love my life, I am grateful, I feel blessed," the senator said. "I'm so proud of my daughter. I love the time I get to spend with my husband and my daughter, and my mother, who is now living with us. ... I respect the choices that other people, particularly other women, make in their lives. And the choices I've made have been right for me."

Clinton used the debate to move even further from her October 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq invasion, claiming the war never would have started if President George W. Bush had been honest about former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons program.

"If we knew then what we know now there would never have been a vote and there would never have been a war," she said.

Adopting a much more aggressive stance than she did in the previous debate, Clinton jabbed at Spencer, even accusing him of raising taxes and doubling the deficit as mayor of Yonkers in the 1990s. A low-key Spencer denied the charge, saying he had lowered taxes and cut costs when he was given authority to do so by the Yonkers City Council.

Spencer, who denied that he's using his Senate candidacy as a run-up to a new run for Yonkers mayor, stepped up his criticism of Clinton's North Korea policy - she favors direct talks and the strategic use of humanitarian assistance - and repeated claims that she failed to bring more jobs upstate.

But he shied away from personal attacks, despite indications from his camp last week that he intended to question Bill Clinton's financial and personal ties to Dubai's royal family.

Instead, Spencer focused on his own narrative, using a question about his opposition to abortion to discuss his life as an adopted child and to describe the transformative experience of meeting his biological mother as an adult.

He also has joked about his lack of name recognition, urging people to check out his Web site - even while admitting he hadn't seen it himself for six months.

"No one seems to know me," he said.