Demos debate in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama blamed aides and campaign surrogates Tuesday night for fueling a campaign controversy over race, jointly pledging at a debate on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. to put the matter behind them.

Obama said "not only in hindsight, but going forward," he regretted that his staff had prodded reporters to pursue the issue.

"Our supporters, our staff, get overzealous. They start saying things that I would not say," added the most viable black candidate in history.

"We both have exuberant and sometimes uncontrollable supporters," Clinton said in the opening moments of a two-hour round-table debate televised on MSNBC. "We need to get this campaign where it should be."

She said comments by black businessman Robert Johnson over the weekend were inappropriate, but sidestepped when asked whether she would bar him from playing a role in her campaign. Johnson made an evident reference to Obama's youthful drug use — although he denied that was his intent.

Clinton, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards settled in for their debate as the former first lady won a meaningless Michigan presidential primary, a contest held in violation of party rules.

The debate unfolded four days before the party-sanctioned Nevada caucuses, and the tone was surprisingly cordial given the recent race-related controversy and the stakes involved in the wide-open race for the party's presidential nomination.

Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses less than two weeks ago, and Clinton countered with an upset victory last Tuesday in the New Hampshire primary. Edwards is winless. After Nevada, the South Carolina Democratic primary is Jan. 26, then the campaign explodes with nearly two dozen contests on Feb. 5.

There was a political reason for the pleasantries, underscored when Edwards was asked whether he and Obama had teamed up to attack Clinton in a debate just before the New Hampshire primary.

"I don't think it was that way," he said. "My job as a candidate for president is to speak the truth as I see it."

Clinton won the primary in an upset three days after the debate, carried to victory over Obama by an unexpectedly large turnout by women voters.

At the same time, there were limits to the comraderie, and Clinton, in particular, took several opportunities to challenge her rivals.