KEY POINTS:
Hillary Clinton has further extended her lead in the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination, amid fresh evidence that voters see her as more experienced and more competent - especially in the foreign policy field - than her closest rival, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggests the nomination is Clinton's to lose. The poll - the first since the former first lady's commanding performance in last week's CNN/YouTube debate - shows her ahead of Obama by 43 per cent to 22 per cent, with John Edwards on 13 per cent. Clinton's lead has grown from 14 points in June to 21 points now.
The results suggest that ordinary voters agree with her rather than Obama, in the row over whether the next President should hold direct and unconditional talks with the leaders of Iran, North Korea and other United States foes. After Obama replied to a debate question that he was ready to do so, Clinton called him "irresponsible and frankly naive" - to which Obama responded that the real show of naivety and irresponsibility was her 2002 Senate vote authorising the Iraq war, which he opposed.
Obama yesterday tried to repair the damage. In unprecedentedly tough talk on terrorism, he pledged that if necessary he would send American troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists without permission from the Islamabad Government. Unless President General Pervez Musharraf did more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters, Pakistan would risk invasion by US forces and the loss of millions of dollars in military aid. "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."
In fact, senior Bush officials have hinted Washington is considering narrowly targeted strikes against suspected terrorist bases in the north-west frontier of Pakistan where Osama bin laden is believed to be hiding. Congress last week passed legislation linking aid to efforts by Musharraf to root out al Qaeda and Taleban fighters on Pakistani territory. Bush has yet to sign it.
- INDEPENDENT
