TEXARKANA, Texas – Former President Clinton on Friday offered voters an image of his wife as the only Democratic presidential candidate with a plan to offer universal health care.

Campaigning in Texarkana, Clinton said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan to require everyone to have health insurance would solve what he described as a national problem. Clinton contrasted that plan to her chief rival's, Sen. Barack Obama, whose plan does not mandate everyone to purchase health care.

"Her opponent excites more Americans ... but would in fact deny us universal health-care coverage for the first time," the former president said. "She represents the solution business."

Senator Clinton's plan would provide government assistance to those who can't afford it. Obama's plan would provide government subsidies to encourage more Americans to buy it. Hillary Clinton has said that would still leave up to 15 million people without insurance.

"It would be truly tragic if the Democratic Party walked away from universal health care for the first time in 60 years when we finally got the business community and the medical community in line behind us," Clinton said, drawing applause.

Obama supporters said in a conference call with reporters that mandates were not the solution and would make it harder to garner consensus in Washington.

"The lack of government coercion isn't the problem," said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., noting that Obama wants to "go light" on government influence in his health care proposal.

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, said overcoming the large special interests who oppose such health-care plans is the real hurdle.

"You have to trump the interest in Washington, and (Obama) is the only candidate who I believe can do that," Bradley said. He said Obama "comes to the issue increasingly as someone who has a very powerful mandate behind him."

The former president has stops planned in Texarkana, Longview, Tyler, Nacogdoches, and Lufkin.

His East Texas tour comes just two days after Mrs. Clinton visited South Texas, with stops in Robstown, McAllen and San Antonio.

Clinton's stop drew about 200 people to the two-tone blue gymnasium of a Texarkana community center. The former president also touched on the war in Iraq, saying indecision by the Iraqi government forces the U.S. to keep its combat troops there.

"If they think we are going to stay there forever and a day, they have no incentive to fix them," Clinton said. "If we stay there, we are not doing them any favors."

The campaign stop marked Clinton's second stop in a month to the city straddling the state line between Arkansas and Texas. The former president visited the Arkansas side of the city Feb. 1, just before that state voted in the Super Tuesday primaries.

Increasingly, Texas looms as a make-or-break state for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. Since battling Barack Obama to a draw in Feb. 5’s Super Tuesday contests, she has watched her rival roll up victories – and pick up momentum – in Louisiana, Washington State, Maine, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

East Texas, once a solid Democratic stronghold, is largely rural and working-class, with a significant African-American population. It’s a political geography that is familiar to Mr. Clinton, a former Arkansas governor.

In the past couple of weeks, Mr. Clinton has not played as visible a role in his wife’s campaign as he had before the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary. In that state, he stumped hard and aggressively for her – too aggressively, some said.

Mr. Obama scored a huge victory in South Carolina, thumping both Mrs. Clinton and John Edwards, a South Carolina native who withdrew from the race days later.

Mr. Obama did particularly well among black voters there, and some said afterward that Mr. Clinton’s sharp elbows were a factor in their decision. On the day of the South Carolina primary, Mr. Clinton appeared to downplay Mr. Obama’s success – and suggest that it had to do with race - when he likened the Obama campaign to Jesse Jackson’s ill-fated presidential runs.

“Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina twice in '84 and '88,” he said. “And he ran a good campaign. And Sen. Obama’s run a good campaign here."

Staff Writer Bruce Tomaso and The Associated Press contributed information to this report.