By John Whitesides and Jeff Mason
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed sharply in a high-stakes one-on-one debate on Tuesday, accusing each other of falsely portraying their stances on health care, trade and other issues.
Clinton, who needs to win next week in Ohio and Texas to keep her presidential campaign alive after Obama's streak of 11 straight victories in nominating contests, went on the attack early in the debate at Cleveland State University in Ohio.
Obama fired back repeatedly in a series of sometimes heated but controlled exchanges. The debate, the last before next Tuesday's contests, was sharper in tone than last week's encounter in Texas, but far less personal and angry than a debate last month in South Carolina.
Clinton kept up her recent criticism of Obama campaign literature sent to Ohio voters that she said mischaracterized her health care proposal, which includes mandates requiring Americans to purchase health insurance.
"We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone," the New York senator said.
Obama, an Illinois senator, said Clinton has frequently misrepresented his health care plan, which does not include mandates and which some critics suggest could leave 15 million Americans uninsured.
Obama said he was interested in bringing the cost of health care down and making coverage more affordable and enforcing mandates could create a burden on some low-income Americans. Clinton's criticisms, he said, were part of a consistent pattern.
"Senator Clinton has ... constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls, flyers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns," he said.