DES MOINES - Benazir Bhutto's slaying Thursday ricocheted through the White House race, confronting candidates with a crisis with deep implications for US security, days before first 2008 votes are cast.
The ex-Pakistani prime minister's assassination thrust national security, and the "war on terror" back onto the 2008 agenda, and the killing was also likely to reignite the debate over experience and leadership credentials, at the center of to-close-to call Democratic and Republican races.
The impact of a huge foreign policy crisis abroad is unclear on voters in Iowa -- which holds the first party nominating contest on January 3 -- where presidential votes can often turn on parochial concerns.
But the situation offered pitfalls and opportunities that called for delicate political positioning for candidates.
Just hours before Bhutto was killed, Democratic pacesetter Hillary Clinton had urgently warned voters in Iowa that no one knew what crises would land on the next president's desk.
Her first reaction to the killing was carefully neutral in political terms.
"I am profoundly saddened and outraged by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto," Clinton said in a statement, saying she had known the slain opposition leader for many years.
"Her death is a tragedy for her country and a terrible reminder of the work that remains to bring peace, stability and hope to regions of the globe too often paralyzed by fear, hatred and violence."
Clinton often argues only she has the qualities and experience among Democrats to wrestle with perilous national security issues -- implicitly questioning whether her rival Barack Obama is ready.
Obama told voters in Iowa that he was shocked and saddened by Bhutto's death in "this terrorist atrocity."
"We have to make sure that we are clear as Americans that we stand for democracy and that we will be steadfast in our desire to end the kinds of terrorist acts that have blighted not just Pakistan but other parts of the world."
Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards noted he had met Bhutto, and said her death should not "delay the march of progress in Pakistan for a single second."
Long-shot Democratic candidate Senator Joseph Biden who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations committee had recently written to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, asking for a greater protection for the opposition leader.
"This is a terrible day," Biden said. "I am convinced Ms Bhutto would have won free and fair elections next week."
"The failure to protect Ms Bhutto raises a lot of hard questions for the government and security services that must be answered."
Former New York mayor Republican Rudolph Giuliani, running hard on national security, saw the killing as testimony to the power of international terror.
"The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a tragic event for Pakistan and for democracy in Pakistan," Giuliani said.
"Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel Aviv or Rawalpindi is an enemy of freedom," Giuliani added.
"We must redouble our efforts to win the terrorists' war on us."
One of Giuliani's Republican rivals, Mitt Romney, also cast Bhutto's death in the wider perspective of the struggle against terrorism.
"For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the war on terror, one must look no further than what has happened today," Romney said in a statement.
America must show its commitment to stand with all the moderate forces across the Islamic world and together face the defining challenge of our generation -- the struggle against violent, radical jihadists.
Veteran Senator Christopher Dodd, a long-shot in the Democratic field, worried about the impact on US security of the assassination.
"We must also recognize the implication of today's tragedy to the security of the region and to that of the United States," Dodd said in a statement.
"At this critical time we must do everything in our power to help Pakistan continue the path toward democracy and full elections.
"Our first priority must be to ensure stability in this critical nuclear state."
col/ksh

12/27/2007 17:46 GMT