A debate Wednesday night that focused on Sen. Barack Obama's potential vulnerabilities was an example of outmoded political "gotcha" games, Obama told a Raleigh audience today.

"That was the rollout of the Republican campaign against me in November," Obama said during a "town hall" meeting at the State Fairgrounds.

"They will try to focus on all these issues that don't have anything to do with how you are paying your bills at the end of the month."

Obama spoke as if he had already won the Democratic nomination, telling the crowd he would respond with force to Republican attacks. "If the Republicans come at me, I will come right back at them, and I will come at them hard," he said.

"I'll be honest with you. It's a little harder to do with a fellow Democrat, because I'm trying to show some restraint. I won't have as much restraint with the Republicans."

During the debate, he said, "It took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people."

But Washington insiders, he said, "like stirring up controversy and playing gotcha games, and I have to say, Sen. Clinton looked in her element. She was taking every opportunity to get a dig in there."

The reference to Sen. Hillary Clinton brought scattered boos from the crowd.

"That's all right," Obama said. "That's her right to kind of twist the knife a bit. ... That's why she is airing only negative attacks on TV in Pennsylvania. ... I understand that, because that is the textbook Washington game. That's how our politicians have been taught to be. That's the lesson she learned when the Republicans were doing the same thing to her back in the 1990s."

During the contentious debate in Philadelphia, Clinton attacked Obama on issues such as the incendiary remarks of his former pastor and his service on a board with a former member of the Weather Underground.

Obama said today that people are tired of negative politics and deserved more discussion of issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy and health care.

He promised to end the war in 2009. He also called for tax relief for the middle class and small business owners, an end to predatory lending and better oversight of Wall Street and the financial markets.

Asked by a member of the audience about the possibility of a debate in North Carolina, Obama was noncommittal.

He and Clinton have debated 21 times, Obama said.

"It's not as if we don't know how to do these things," he said. "I can deliver Sen. Clinton's lines, and I'm sure she can deliver mine. ... We're just trying to figure out what is the best way to reach as many people as possible in a short period of time."