The race for the Democratic nomination took an ugly turn last night when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama clashed repeatedly during a televised debate that produced the most vicious personal jibes of the campaign so far.
Both questioned the honesty of the other, with Obama claiming he was being deliberately misrepresented by both Hillary and Bill Clinton in assertions that were "not factually accurate".
The exchanges included a claim by Clinton that her opponent had worked for a slum landlord in Chicago.
Abandoning pledges made last year to fight a civilised campaign focused on policy, the two spent much of the early part of a two-hour debate at Myrtle Beach raking up each other's past.
They constantly interrupted one another, questioning each other's honesty. At one point, parts of the audience booed Clinton when she said it was impossible to debate with Obama because he would not give a straight answer.
Such personal exchanges are dangerous for candidates, often turning off voters.
As if realising they had gone too far, the two spent the latter part of the debate calling each by their first names and exchanging jokes and pleasantries. Although only Clinton was booed, the exchanges may have damaged both.
The third canddate at the debate, John Edwards, was left largely as a bystander. "Are there three people in this debate, not two?" he asked.
The three face the voters on Saturday in the South Carolina Democratic primary.
Obama, stung by his loss of the Nevada primary on Saturday, began complaining on Sunday that he was a victim of a dishonest campaign by the Clinton camp, in particular by the former president Bill Clinton.
That frustration spilled over into the debate last night. Angered by a jibe from Bill Clinton last week that Obama admired Ronald Reagan, Obama turned on Hillary Clinton at the debate, telling her he had opposed Reagan's policies.
He told her he had been an anti-poverty organiser on the streets of Chicago. "While I was working on those streets, watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart. I was fighting those fights."
Clinton did not wait long for an opportunity to retaliate. She said that Republicans had been responsible for lots of bad ideas, "and I was fighting against those ideas when you were practising law and representing your contributor [Tony] Rezco in a slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."
Obama sought to clarify this, saying he had been involved with a church group talking about a joint project with Rezco, and had done only five hours' work.
One of the emerging issues of the campaign is the role of Bill Clinton. Obama brought this up in the debate, saying he recognised his right to campaign for his wife, but that he was troubled by what he said was the former president's misrepresentation of his, Obama's, positions.
During the debate, Obama quoted a contentious remark made by Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton shot back: "Well, I'm here; he's not." Obama replied: "OK. Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."
The battle between the two was relatively civil for most of last year. The pair exchanged harsh words over the last fortnight over the race issue, but a truce was brokered by an African-American congressman, who felt the row was damaging the party.
But, with so much at stake, the chances of a truce lasting were remote.
In another sharp passage during the debate, Clinton challenged Obama over his voting record as a senator in the Illinois legislature. He attempted to explain why he had voted as he had done.
Clinton said: "Well, you know, Senator Obama, it is very difficult having a straight-up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote, and that has been a pattern."
It was at this point that the audience booed her.
Obama went on to say he had worked hard for the specific legislative measure in question, dealing with the victims of sexual abuse "partly because I've had family members who were victims of sexual abuse, and I've got two daughters who I want to protect".
He said that this kind of politicking by Clinton belonged to the kind of old Washington ways the public disliked.
"There was a set of assertions made by Senator Clinton, as well as her husband, that are not factually accurate," Obama said.
"I think that part of what people are looking for right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington."
Clinton countered: "I believe [that] your record and what you say should matter."
Afterwards, in the "spin room", where campaign staff meet journalists to press their messages, there was little sign that either side was planning to back off in the near future.
Mark Penn, Clinton's main campaign strategist, said Obama had been to blame, insisting he had arrived at the debate with the express intention of launching a personal attack.
"When he was challenged on facts by Hillary Clinton, he did not answer ... He came to attack senator Clinton and he ended up on his heels," Penn said.
Asked why Clinton had been booed, he said both had been booed.
The Obama team appeared relaxed about how the night had gone and did not anticipate a public backlash.
Al Green, a congressman from Texas, representing Obama in the "spin room", said: "In a debate, you have to have an opportunity to set the record straight. You must challenge untruths. I think these kind of lively debates will bring people into politics."
It took voting in three states and a few hundred or so debates for it to happen. But finally, Monday night in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the Democratic candidates tossed it all out on the table.
Dropping the niceties and couched language of previous encounters, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama engaged in a series of fierce -- and remarkably personal -- clashes that touched on all of the big issues, and their respective weak points: the Iraq war, healthcare, the economy, and even Clinton's service on the Walmart board and Obama's ties to an indicted real-estate mogul.
The debate was stark evidence of the tight nature of the campaign; the three remaining major candidates have three very different paths to the same nomination, all of which run through South Carolina, in their own way.
Obama made clear from the outset that he's not going to let the Clinton name -- or former President Bill Clinton himself -- intimidate him. He tied his pushback to the message he's long espoused, of a new type of politics he hopes to usher in as the Democratic nominee.
"I think that part of what people are looking right now is someone who is going to solve problems and not resort to the same typical politics that we've seen in Washington," Obama said.
Clinton didn't back down, not just defending her husband's attacks but adding her own. She unloaded a crate's worth of opposition research, citing chapter and verse of multiple storylines her campaign has been trying to tell behind the scenes, until now.
"Senator Obama, it's hard to have a straight-up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," Clinton said. "It's just very difficult to get a straight answer."
The reason that Clinton and Obama allowed themselves the luxury of turning the evening into a "this time it's personal" face-off was that they no longer feared losing votes to the underfunded Edwards, already badly weakened by third-place finishes in New Hampshire and Nevada.
For those who crave the blood sport aspects of politics, it was a night to remember. Clinton demonstrated that she has the ability to pile one attack on top of another without pausing for breath.
Finally, like a soda jerk adding the cherry atop an ice cream sundae, Clinton referred to the time when Obama was "practicing law and representing your contributor [Antoin] Rezko in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."
Rezko -- who is certain to become a familiar figure in Republican attack ads if Obama is the Democratic nominee -- raised more than $150,000 for Obama's political campaigns (some of the money was later donated to charity) and aided the Obamas in a 2005 real-estate transaction.
Rezko was indicted in 2006 by the federal government on totally unrelated corruption charges and goes to trial next month.
