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Clinton knocks Bush's handling of Pakistan

BY MARTIN C. EVANS | martin.evans@newsday.com

10:37 PM EST, December 28, 2007

STORY CITY, Iowa - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hurled a dart at President George W. Bush that seemed also aimed at her Democratic rivals, saying the president's mismanagement of Pakistan diplomacy has contributed to instability in that nuclear-tipped nation pocked with Taliban redoubts.

"This is one of the most dangerous and difficult regions in the world, we know that," Clinton told a receptive audience that packed an elementary school gymnasium here Friday. "We have suffered and experienced what that means here at home. I am urging President Bush to adopt a new policy."

In attacking Bush over turmoil in Pakistan one day after the assassination there of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Clinton suggested that her eight years as the nation's first lady gave her a timely familiarity with world diplomacy that her Democratic rivals lack.

Clinton repeatedly reminded the audience that she had met with leaders from the region as recently as the past year, including Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, and said her efforts to get Bush to broker smoother relations between them had proved fruitless.

Clinton accused Bush of failing to hold Musharraf accountable for deteriorating political stability in Pakistan, and urged him to demand an "international, independent investigation" of Bhutto's death.

Clinton devoted about 10 minutes of a 40-minute speech to her views of events in Pakistan, indicating the importance her campaign places on portraying her as being strong on national security, an issue upon which she does well among .potential voters.

She also promised to begin bringing U.S. soldiers home from Iraq within 60 days of becoming president, criticized Bush's "No Child Left Behind" school standards as an unfunded mandate, spoke of a U.S. economy that is losing jobs overseas and offered herself as someone whose presidency could be both tough and compassionate.

"I know how to find common ground and I know how to stand my ground," Clinton said.

Despite holding a sizable lead in national polling, Clinton is in a dead heat in Iowa with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. A loss here could shatter her campaign's efforts to offer her as the presumptive favorite for the Democratic Party's nomination.

Despite her criticism of Bush, Clinton accused Obama of politicizing Bhutto's death, following suggestions by Obama's camp that Clinton's early support for the Iraq war had diverted U.S. attention away from instability along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. The border there has become a hideout for remnants of the Taliban, which U.S. forces drove from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

"I just regret that [Obama and his chief strategist] would be politicizing this tragedy, and especially at a time when we do need to figure out a way forward," Clinton said Friday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.