Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Hillary Clinton said today she is the only candidate in the presidential race who will be able to reverse President George W. Bush's foreign policy and warned that the U.S. can't gamble on putting the White House in inexperienced hands.

Without mentioning rival Barack Obama by name, Clinton said the country can't afford to repeat the last seven years under the Republican president.

``We have seen the tragic result of having a president who had neither the experience or the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our nation,'' Clinton said in a speech today in Washington. ``America has already taken that chance one time too many.''

The New York senator is trying to regain her footing in the Democratic nomination race by emphasizing her experience as a senator and first lady, arguing that makes her better prepared for the presidency than Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois.

The two, who are competing March 4 in primaries in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont, also kept up their sparring over trade and past statements about the North American Free Trade Agreement. Trade figures to be a major issue in Ohio, where manufacturing jobs have declined 23 percent since December 2000. Clinton is counting on wins there and in Texas to keep her campaign going after 11 consecutive losses to Obama.

Obama in Ohio

Obama, 46, campaigned today in Cincinnati and talked about the economy, trade and health care.

While he didn't directly respond to Clinton, his aides released a statement from an adviser, retired Major General J. Scott Gration, calling it ``ironic'' that Clinton compared Obama to Bush ``when she voted to authorize the war in Iraq, supports the Bush policy of not talking to leaders we don't like, and gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran and Pakistan.''

In Washington, Clinton said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, changes in Cuba, Kosovo's declaration of independence and other recent events demonstrate ``how essential it is we have sound strategy and sound leadership.''

``The American people don't have to guess whether I understand the issues,'' she said. The U.S. faces many dangers as well as ``unprecedented opportunities,'' Clinton, 60, said, ``if we have the right leadership.''

Meeting With Adversaries

Clinton criticized Obama's positions while mentioning him only near the end of her remarks. She referred to his past statements that he would meet with U.S. adversaries such as the leaders of Iran and Venezuela without conditions and would consider unilateral military action against terrorist hideouts in Pakistan.

``He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and meetings without preconditions can solve some of the world's most intractable problems, to advocating rash, unilateral military action without cooperation from our allies in the most sensitive region of the world,'' Clinton said.

Clinton also tied trade to national security, saying a ``level playing field'' for U.S. workers and companies ``has direct and serious implications for our capacity to operate effectively on behalf of our strategic interests in the world.''

Clinton Mailer

Her campaign released a mailer being sent to voters in Ohio citing news articles from Obama's Senate campaign in which he said the U.S. should continue working with the World Trade Organization and pursue free-trade accords such as Nafta.

``In 2004 Senator Obama was quoted or was reported to have said very positive things about Nafta,'' Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said on a conference call.

Obama's campaign said the passages cited by Clinton's mailer don't accurately portray his position.

``This idea that Barack Obama's position on Nafta isn't clear is nonsense,'' Bruce Raynor, general president of labor union federation Unite Here, said on a conference call.

Obama told about 11,000 people at a rally today in Cincinnati that the U.S. must have a ``trade system that is free and fair.''

Obama's aides say Clinton has shifted from supporting the treaty to criticizing it since becoming a presidential candidate. Clinton and Obama both have promised to revise Nafta to include tougher labor and environmental standards.

Wolfson said Clinton is on record as far back as 2000 as being critical of Nafta, which was approved in 1994 while Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, was president. Some union leaders blame the accord for job losses.

Clinton Memoir

In her memoir, ``Living History,'' Clinton wrote that Nafta was one of her husband's ``successes'' and that creating a free- trade zone for the hemisphere would ``ensure that our economy was reaping the benefits, not the burdens, of globalization.''

Clinton needs victories in Ohio and Texas, with a total of 334 pledged delegates available, to blunt some of Obama's momentum in the presidential nomination race.

He has the edge among pledged delegates nationwide, with 1,124.5 to Clinton's 1,006.5, according to unofficial estimates by The Green Papers, a nonpartisan Web site.

The totals don't include the 795 so-called superdelegates, Democratic Party officials and officeholders who aren't bound by election results and have tilted toward Clinton. A candidate needs 2,025 votes at the party convention to become the nominee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Stern in Washington at cstern3@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Cincinnati at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 25, 2008 17:12 EST