DES MOINES - Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama unloaded a sharp new attack on rival Hillary Clinton Thursday, coupled with a ringing new call for change, one week before first 2008 votes are cast.
Obama, running in a dead heat with Clinton in Iowa, which holds leadoff nominating contests on January 3, fired off a new attack on the former first lady, painting her as a symbol of a bankrupt political system in Washington.
"You can't at once argue that you are the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it," Obama said in a stump speech.
"You can't fall behind conventional thinking on issues as profound as war and offer yourself as the leader who is best prepared to chart a new and better course for America."
Obama did not mention Clinton by name, but his comments clearly represented a new attempt to skewer the central rationale of her campaign message that only she has the experience among Democrats to serve as US president.
Clinton's closing strategy is to brand Obama as naive and guilty of merely hoping for political change, without having the experience in Washington's political bear pit to get it done.
"It's about the meaning of hope," Obama told around 300 supporters in Iowa's state capital Des Moines.
"Some of my opponents appear scornful of the word, they think it speaks of naivete, passivity and wishful thinking."
In Pella, Iowa on Wednesday, Clinton painted a dire picture of America's plight in the world, and said a host of unpredictable crises would land on the next president's desk.
"I am not coming to you with promises about what I think I can do or hopes that together we can achieve some of these ends ... but with a track record and an understanding of how difficult the process is," Clinton said.
Clinton, 60, claims that as first lady for eight years, and now in her second term in the Senate, she has the top-level experience of politics at the highest level that her rivals lack.
The unspoken but clear implication of her words was that Americans should think carefully before entrusting the White House to a first-term senator, like 46-year-old Obama.
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12/27/2007 18:00 GMT