Edwards criticizes feuding between Clinton, Obama

With his rivals engaged in a high-profile feud, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards tried to position himself Friday as the more statesmanlike leader, saying that the bickering between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama epitomized what was wrong with U.S. politics.

“In the last four days we have two good people, Democratic candidates for president, who have spent their time attacking each other instead of attacking the problems this country faces,” Edwards told the annual National Urban League convention, which also heard speeches from Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Obama (D-Ill.).

To the “oohs” that followed his remark, Edwards ad-libbed: “I got your attention with that one, didn’t I?”

The attacks the former senator from North Carolina referred to were a series of edgy exchanges between Clinton and Obama and their aides over the proper way for a president to deal with hostile nations.

At a debate in South Carolina on Monday among the eight Democratic White House contenders, Obama said he would readily meet with leaders of rogue nations in his first year as president.

Clinton challenged that answer onstage, saying underlings should first establish conditions for such negotiations. And Tuesday, while campaigning in Iowa, she cast Obama’s position as “naive.”

Obama, in turn, described Clinton’s foreign policy as taking a page from President Bush, calling it “Bush-Cheney lite.”

Edwards’ address to the National Urban League, a leading civil rights group, represented his first effort to get some traction from the dispute. The sparring, he said, was more proof of a political system that is “broken.”

He did not venture an opinion on the core argument: How assertive should a president be in trying to establish direct diplomacy with leaders of Iran, North Korea, Cuba and the like?

Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, has sought to distinguish himself in this year’s race mainly by emphasizing his commitment to a populist, left-leaning agenda.

Obama and Clinton followed Edwards to the podium at the Urban League gathering; neither responded in their speeches to his dig.

Clinton also avoided any reference to Obama. But Obama made plain his belief that he would bring a more dynamic approach to the Oval Office than she would.

“Who has got the leadership capacity to get beyond the narrow terms of the debate and start thinking big and thinking more boldly?” he asked, clearly offering himself as the answer.

Marc H. Morial, Urban League president and a former New Orleans mayor, said invitations for Friday’s forum went out to Republican and Democratic candidates alike. But only four Democrats -- Clinton, Obama, Edwards and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio -- accepted the opportunity to speak to the audience of about 2,500.

The gathering offered the candidates a high-profile chance to woo the African American voting bloc, a core Democratic constituency.

The choice may pose a dilemma for black voters. Clinton’s husband, famously dubbed America’s “first black president” by author Toni Morrison, remains a popular figure in the African American community.

In her half-hour address, Sen. Clinton made a palpable emotional connection with the audience, who whooped and applauded throughout.

At one point, Morial edged closer to Clinton, indicating her time had run out.

“I’m all fired up about this,” she said. “You can’t stop me now!” The audience laughed.

Yet Obama is a source of pride for many black voters who see him as an inspirational figure in his bid to become the nation’s first African American president.

Interviews with people at the forum underscored the divide.

“There needs to be a real shift in what America is doing right now,” said George Thompson, 38, a financial planner from Los Angeles. Clinton “is already so into politics. We may need someone newer -- someone who has a new way of thinking and a new way of doing things.”

But Alonzo Byrd, 50, an executive with Enterprise rental car company, said he valued Clinton’s experience.

She speaks to black voters “very effortlessly,” Byrd said. “She has a penchant for connecting with this community in particular.”

Obama, in his turn at the podium, made a couple of critical allusions to Clinton. In one, his choice of words drew attention to Clinton’s frequent description of her campaign as a prolonged “conversation” with voters.

“Here’s what I won’t do” in trying to close the gap in educational performance between black and white students, he said. “I’m not going to set up a commission and I’m not going to have a conversation -- because we set those up with a lot of fanfare and there’s never any follow-through.”

He said he would, instead, routinely visit inner-city schools, among other steps.

In her remarks, Clinton detailed what her campaign called a new agenda for “the silent crisis of disconnected youth in America.” Focusing on the educational and economic hurdles faced by many young African American men, she called for a multibillion-dollar remedy that would include summer internships, mentoring and job programs, universal preschool and more help for first-time mothers.

peter.nicholas@latimes.com