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Obama Stresses Value Of Multicultural Background

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By PHILLIP ELLIOTT, The Associated Press

Published: February 3, 2008

NEW YORK - Democrat Barack Obama told young voters Saturday his multicultural background lets him "see through the eyes of other people" abroad in ways another president could not. Closer to home - and student pocketbooks - Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke of aggressive steps to make college affordable.

The two Democrats and Republicans Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul joined in a youth-oriented forum sponsored by MTV, The Associated Press and MySpace, each fielding questions separately by satellite. In perhaps a sign of Obama's strength with young people, both Clinton and Huckabee were asked not just about themselves, but about him.

Clinton, asked what Obama symbolized in the contest, said she and her rival together "represent such a sea change in America" - one bidding to become the first female president, the other wanting to be the first black president.

Obama declared the contest is not about the race or the sex of the candidates. If it were just about his race, he said, "I wouldn't have to answer questions. I could just show up."

Clinton was in Tucson, Ariz., and Obama in Minneapolis, each in motion before the nearly two dozen presidential nomination contests Tuesday. John McCain and Mitt Romney, top contenders for the GOP nomination, declined to participate in the forum. McCain answered questions solo at an MTV-MySpace forum from New Hampshire in December.

Obama, an Illinois senator, asked young voters concerned about America's place in the world to judge him on his record of standing against the Iraq war and on his background as the son of a Kenyan father and mother from Kansas. He noted his school days in Indonesia.

"If I convene a meeting of Muslim leaders to try to bridge the divide between Islam and the West, I do so with the credibility of someone who lived in a Muslim country for four years when I was a child," he said.

Clinton, a New York senator, outlined her proposals to help students pay off debt with national service and increase Pell grants. She said student loan companies should be cut out of the process and colleges should enter contracts with freshmen ensuring no tuition increases.

Huckabee, opening the forum, complained he always gets "the God questions" when he'd rather be talking about public policy, and denied there's any conflict between his faith and the right things to do as president.

The former Baptist preacher was asked whether he could make decisions in the Oval Office that might be at odds with his religion.

"There's not this glaring conflict," he said. "Faith helps me to understand what is right."

Paul told the forum he opposed U.S. intervention in Sudan's Darfur region and placed little faith in the ability of the United Nations to relieve the crisis there.

He said he might support some interim aid, steered through international agencies, to address "these social problems in Africa."

Huckabee spoke from Montgomery, Ala., and Paul from Victoria, Texas.

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