CLEVELAND -- New York Sen. Hillary Clinton came out swinging Tuesday night against rival Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, challenging his honesty in a testy debate that offered her one last chance to slow his momentum before make-or-break Democratic presidential primary contests next week.

Clinton accused Obama of spreading ''false, misleading and discredited'' information about her plan for healthcare reform. She said his claims about her stands on trade were ''disturbing'' and wrong.

He responded in kind, saying his charges were accurate while insisting that he has suffered silently through a long negative barrage from her. ''We haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns,'' he said.

The stakes were enormous as the two Democratic contenders faced off for perhaps the final time of their yearlong campaign. It was also their last debate before critical primaries next Tuesday in Ohio and Texas, where Clinton is fighting for her political life. After losing 11 straight contests since ''Super Tuesday'' on Feb. 5, Clinton aides call Ohio and Texas must-wins and concede that losses there could force her to quit the race.

She is striving to hold her narrowing lead in Ohio, still 11 points in one survey but half what it was two weeks ago. She also has lost ground in Texas, where she had led but now is in a tight race with the surging Obama.

In a sign of the increased tension between them, the two candidates rarely looked at one another during their most heated exchanges.

At one point, Clinton suggested that she has been the victim of unfair treatment -- and that Obama has been favored by the media -- because she's often put on the defensive by being asked the first question in the 20 debates they've now endured over 10 months.

She jokingly asked whether the debate moderators might want to get Obama a pillow, drawing audience groans as she referred to last weekend's Saturday Night Live television sketch suggesting the media fawn over Obama.

On healthcare, Clinton insisted that she alone would seek to expand insurance to all of the nation's 47 million uninsured by mandating coverage.

Obama has said that means she would force people to buy insurance even if they couldn't afford it, drawing Clinton's heated complaint that the charge was inaccurate.

She said people would be automatically enrolled in health insurance at their job or when they had any contact with a government office. She did not say how or whether that would be enforced.

The two clashed as well over their records on the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, a hot issue in a state where many workers blame trade for the loss of 235,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000 alone.

''I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning,'' Clinton said. ``I didn't have a public position on it, because I was part of the [Clinton] administration, but when I started running for the Senate, I have been a critic. I've said it was flawed.''

Obama did support the deal, she said, noting that he ``told the farmers of Illinois a couple of years ago that he wanted more trade agreements.''

''It is inaccurate for Senator Clinton to say that she's always opposed NAFTA,'' Obama countered. ``In her campaign for Senate, she said that NAFTA, on balance, had been good for New York and good for America. I disagree with that.''

He went on to say that while he did support trade in the speech to the Illinois farm group, he also said the trade deals should better account for their effect on U.S. communities.

Both vowed to renegotiate the deal to add stronger labor and environment safeguards.

For the second time in a nationally televised debate, Obama pointed to congressional intervention in the court battle over Terri Schiavo's life in a Florida hospice as one of his biggest regrets.

He said he wished he had spoken out when Republican lawmakers tried to stop the severely brain-damaged woman's husband from removing her feeding tube in 2005.

``It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped, and I think that was a mistake.''

Clinton and Obama also vied over which one is better prepared for the presidency.

Clinton referred to her experience both in the White House and the Congress.

Obama insisted, however, that Clinton cannot claim both the benefits of her years as first lady while also disavowing all the unpopular policies of her husband's administration, such as NAFTA.

Both candidates were put on the defensive by MSNBC hosts Tim Russert and Brian Williams.

At one point, Obama insisted that ''I am absolutely clear that hope is not enough'' to achieve major change in Washington, but also insisted that to achieve change requires mobilizing the American people behind goals, and there's ``nothing romantic or silly about that.''

For her part, Clinton was pressed on why she won't release joint tax returns filed with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and she promised that she will, but not before Tuesday's primaries because she's too busy.

Responding to a question, Obama said he did not court his recent endorsement by Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, a known anti-Semite, and that he denounced Farrakhan's record.

Clinton pounced, saying she rejected support from an anti-Semitic group in her 2000 New York Senate campaign. ''There's a difference between denouncing and rejecting,'' she said. Affirming Obama's sincerity, she added: ``We've got to be even stronger.''

''I don't see a difference between denouncing and rejecting,'' Obama said. ''But if the word reject Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word denounce, then I'm happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce'' Farrakhan's endorsement.

Miami Herald staff writer Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@