In a televised debate Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama sought to distance himself from an endorsement from Min. Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam who has been criticized by Jews for making anti-Semitic remarks in the past.

Obama said he hadn't asked for the endorsement and that he had denounced Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic comments over the years. Obama said he has strong support from Jews across the country.

Obama’s Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, interjected at one point, saying that in her initial Senate campaign in New York in 2000, she was supported by a group with virulent anti-Semitic views.

"I rejected it, and said it would not be anything I would be comfortable with." She said rejecting support was different than denouncing it, an obvious jab at Obama.

Obama responded by saying he didn't see the difference, since Farrakhan hadn't done anything except declare his support.

"If Sen. Clinton feels that ‘reject’ is stronger than the word ‘denounce,’ then I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce" Farrakhan’s support, Obama said to scattered laughter in the hall.

Peter C. Groff, a Colorado state senator, publisher of Blackpolicy.org and executive director of the Center for African-American Policy at the University of Denver, said Tuesday was the first debate in some time where the complex issue of race was injected in a very direct way by MSNBC's Tim Russert.

"Russert's question was clearly timed and planned to throw the typically unflappable Obama off," Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

"Russert and the entire, mostly white male line-up that constitutes MSNBC's political talk should already understand the dynamics involving the perceived and real impact of Min. Louis Farrakhan in the African-American community," he said. "Hence, one can argue that Russert -- mangling Farrakhan's name in a moment of ignorance -- played on that, attempting a classic 'divide-and-conquer' move to see if Obama would go far enough in a denunciation of Farrakhan. That was an interesting moment."

"Even more interesting was Sen. Clinton's sudden entrance into that conversation, struggling to find a way in which she could tactically undermine a slice of his African-American support while simultaneously painting him as being indirect or weak," Groff added. "Instead, Obama was able to, again, deflect it, speaking in larger platitudes about the legacy of the African-American and Jewish relationship."

Clinton and Obama also clashed over NAFTA, health care and the war in Iraq Tuesday night in a crackling debate at close quarters one week before a pivotal group of primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island. Charges of negative campaign tactics were high on the program, too.

"Sen. Obama has consistently said I would force people to have health care whether they can afford it or not," said Clinton, insisting it was not true.

Responding quickly, Obama countered that the former First Lady had consistently claimed his plan "would leave 15 million people out ... I dispute that. I think it is inaccurate," he said.

"I thought Barack was especially strong on trade," Rev. Jesse Jackson said afterward of Obama, who has won the last straight 11 primary contests. In doing so, Obama has pulled ahead of Clinton in many national polls and edged slightly ahead in most news organizations’ counts of delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

The Clinton campaign has maintained that it must succeed in Ohio and Texas to have a realistic shot at the Democratic nomination. Obama has pulled to within six percentage points of Clinton in an Ohio poll released Tuesday, and polls in Texas show Clinton and Obama locked in a statistical dead heat.

On Tuesday, the tone was polite yet pointed, increasingly so as the 90-minute session wore on, a reflection of the stakes in a race in which Obama has the momentum, and Clinton is in desperate need of a comeback.

Tara Wall, a conservative commentator and former senior advisor for the Republican National Committee, said neither Clinton or Obama offered a fresh perspective.

"We heard nothing new from the two Democrat candidates tonight," Wall told BlackAmericaWeb.com Tuesday night. "They spent far too much time sparring over the meaning of 'reject' or 'denounce' and nit-picking one another's equally liberal approach to issues like health care reform."

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Obama showed why he’s the one candidate who has the judgment to serve as commander-in-chief and can draw a clear contrast on foreign policy with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

"Barack Obama opposed this war in Iraq from the start and said that it would distract us from the terrorists in Afghanistan," Plouffe said. "When he is president, he will end this war, take the fight to al Qaeda, restore respect for America in the world and bring this country together to deliver the kind of change that will help struggling families afford health care, stay in their homes and send their children to college."

Democratic strategist Craig Kirby said Obama appeared presidential and took the high road during Tuesday’s debate.

"Barack held his own," Kirby told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "He took control of the debate and showed the poise and control of a statesman."

During the debate, Clinton also said that to her knowledge, her campaign had nothing to do with circulating a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and robe presented to him by elders in Wajir in northeastern Kenya.

The gossip and news Web site The Drudge Report posted the photograph Monday and said, without substantiation, that it was being circulated by "Clinton staffers."

"We have no evidence where it came from," Clinton said, making clear that's not the kind of behavior she wants in her campaign.

"I take Sen. Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo," Obama said.

The two rivals, the only survivors of a grueling primary season, sat about a foot apart at a table on stage at Cleveland State University. It was the 20th debate of the campaign, 10 months to the day after the first.

The race was far different in April 2007, when Clinton the front-runner by far. Now Obama holds that place, both in terms of contests and delegates won.

"Sen. Obama needed only to continue appearing dominant and to both focus on issues and deflect criticism in such a way that made him look like the nominee," Groff said. "He was fairly successful at doing just that, while at the same time carefully avoiding any statements that would raise serious controversy."

"There was also an opportunity for Sen. Clinton to find a key, central message that could finally resonate with voters in such a way that made her competitive," he added. "That didn't appear to happen for her tonight, as she struggled to portray herself as a fighter, hoping to strike a chord with blue-collar Ohio voters."

Both Obama and Clinton were on the receiving end of pointed questions from Russert of NBC News, who moderated the debate with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams for the event.

Asked whether he was waffling on his pledge of agreeing to take federal funds for the fall campaign, Obama said he was still contesting the primaries.

"If I am the nominee, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure we come up with a system that is fair to both sides," he said. Obama could presumably raise far more money than the federal system provides, but accepting government money precludes that.

The equivalent question to Clinton concerned the income tax returns that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, file jointly.

"I will release my tax returns," Clinton said, if she becomes the Democratic nominee. She then added she might do so "even earlier," but not before Tuesday's primary.

The two rivals also debated NAFTA, the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that is wildly unpopular with blue-collar workers whose votes are critical in any Democratic primary in Ohio.

Neither one said they were ready to withdraw from the agreement, although both said they would use the threat of withdrawal to pressure Mexico to make changes.

"I have said I would renegotiate NAFTA," said Clinton. "I will say to Mexico that we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it."

Obama said Clinton has tried to have it both ways, touting the trade deal in farm states where it's popular while finding fault with it in places like Ohio.

"This is something I have been consistent about," said Obama, who said he went to the American Farm Bureau Federation to tout his opposition and used it as an issue in his 2004 Senate campaign.

"That conversation I had with the Farm Bureau, I was not ambivalent at all," said Obama.

On the war, both candidates denounced President Bush's record on Iraq, then restated long-held disagreements over which of them was more opposed.

Clinton said she and Obama had virtually identical voting records on the war since he came to the Senate in 2005.

The former First Lady voted in 2002 to authorize the war, at a time when Obama was not yet in Congress, and he tried to use the issue to rebut charges that he is ill-prepared to become commander in chief.

"The fact is that Sen. Clinton often says that she is ready on Day One," Obama said, "but, in fact, she was ready to give in to George Bush on Day One on this critical issue."