Clinton, Obama go on attack ahead of crucial vote

With two days to go before a crucial U.S. presidential vote, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sharpened their attacks on Sunday, with Clinton pouncing on Obama for saying Republican John McCain would be better for the country than George W. Bush.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smiles during a rally at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, April 20, 2008. With two days to go before a crucial U.S. presidential vote, Democrats Barack Obama and Clinton sharpened their attacks on Sunday. (REUTERS/Tim Shaffer)

Obama told a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania McCain would be an improvement over Bush, a comment that seemed to undercut the message he often pushes that electing McCain would amount to giving the current Republican president a third term.

"You have a real choice in this election -- you know, either Democrat would be better than John McCain, and all three of us would be better than George Bush," Obama said.

Clinton, vying with Obama for the Democratic nomination and the right to run against presumptive Republican nominee McCain in the November election, criticized Obama's comments.

"We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain," she said at a rally in Johnstown.

The two candidates sparred ahead of Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, which has become a major test in the race for the party's nomination.

Clinton, a New York senator who needs a win in the state to keep her presidential ambitions alive, leads in polls but Obama, an Illinois senator and the national front-runner, has cut into her one-time double-digit lead in recent weeks.

At a later event in Scranton, Obama appeared to backtrack on his suggestion that McCain would be better than Bush, once again reiterating his view that the Arizona senator was "running for George Bush's third term."

"We can't afford four more years of George Bush policies under the guise of John McCain," Obama said.

He also said Clinton's campaign tactics amounted to "game-playing" and said she would not represent enough of a change from the Bush administration.

'CHEAP POLITICAL POINTS'

"Trying to score cheap political points may make good headlines and good television but it doesn't make for good government," Obama said.

"If we're really going to solve big problems then we can't just settle for a little bit better. We need something fundamentally different," he added.

Clinton said it was Obama who had gone negative since their Philadelphia debate last week.

"It's no wonder that my opponent has been so negative these last few days of the campaign because I think you saw ... a big difference between us," she said at a rally in Bethlehem.

"While my opponent says one thing, his campaign, he does another. You can count on me to tell you what I will do," she said in Johnstown.

Clinton, who with her husband former President Bill Clinton has been the subject of many conservative investigations since the couple first entered the White House in 1993, was endorsed on Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review whose publisher, Richard Mellon Scaife, funded many of those probes.

"Clinton's decision to sit down with the Trib (editorial board) was courageous, given our long-standing criticism of her," the paper said. "Political courage is essential in a president. Clinton has demonstrated it. Obama has not."

Obama picked up an endorsement, too, from the Financial Times. "After Tuesday's vote, the Democrats should move quickly to affirm Mr. Obama's nomination," it said. "He is, in fact, the better candidate."

Ahead of Tuesday's Pennsylvania vote, most analysts believed Clinton would win but the size of the victory has become the focus of both campaigns.

McCain this week was heading off on a multistate tour of areas hard hit by poverty. Before leaving, he addressed the issue of his temper, which was the subject of a front-page Washington Post story on Sunday.

He said on ABC's "This Week" examples given in the story were decades old, "totally untrue or grossly exaggerated."

"I am very happy to be a passionate man," he said. "I love this country. I love what we stand for and believe in, and many times I deal passionately when I find things that are not in the best interests of the American people."

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U.S. Democrat Obama hauls in $42.8 million in March

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $42 million in campaign donations in March, his campaign reported on Sunday.

The Illinois senator hauled in $42.8 million in the scramble for cash ahead of a showdown with rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, the campaign said in a monthly fund-raising report.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama addresses supporters at a town meeting in Reading, Pennsylvania April 20, 2008. Obama raised more than $42 million in campaign donations in March, his campaign reported on Sunday. (REUTERS/Bradley Bower)

The $42.8 million Obama raised in March was less than the $55 million his campaign brought in during February.

The February total for the Illinois senator was an all-time high for any presidential candidate during a primary and the March number, while lower, was the second highest.

The candidates had until midnight EDT Sunday to file monthly campaign fund-raising reports with the U.S. Federal Election Commission.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's March report was not out yet. A campaign source said earlier this month the New York senator expected to raise about $20 million.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain began April with $11.6 cash on hand, his campaign said in its fundraising disclosure report.

The Arizona senator, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination to contest the November election, raised $15.4 in March and spent $11.8 during the month, the campaign reported.

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Hillary, Obama hit each other in attack ads

Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were bashing one another with the most negative attacks of the primary season, bidding for undecided voters in Tuesday's critical Pennsylvania primary.

The former first lady gained the endorsement of a Pittsburgh newspaper whose owner funded probes that led to her husband's impeachment a decade ago.

With just 10 pre-convention contests remaining after Pennsylvania, it appeared mathematically impossible for either candidate to gather the 2,025 delegates needed for nomination going into the party convention in August. That leaves the nomination in the hands of so-called superdelegates, the nearly 800 party officials who can vote for either candidate regardless of state primary or caucus results.

The battle for Pennsylvania has turned particularly nasty as Clinton, who initially was expected to win easily and by a large margin, has seen her lead shrink in state polls. Obama _ who is the clear front-runner for the nomination _ is fighting equally hard to keep his expected loss as narrow as possible, hoping to diminish Clinton's argument to the superdelegates that she has unstoppable momentum.

She goes into the Pennsylvania primary having most recently won the delegate-heavy states of Texas and Ohio, but Obama leads nationwide in delegates selected in primary elections and state caucuses, in the popular vote and the number of pre-convention state contests won.

Overall, including the nearly 500 superdelegates who have committed to one of the Democrats, Obama leads 1,646 to 1,508. On Sunday, Clinton's campaign was bristling over new Obama TV ads that claimed the New York senator's health care plan would force Americans to buy into the program even if they couldn't afford it. Obama also was striking out at Clinton, charging her with having cozy links to lobbyists _ that in response to her campaign claims that he was taking money from special interest groups.

In a development that would have seemed impossible as the campaign opened, Clinton won the backing of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and its owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.

In the 1990s, he spent $2.3 million (euro1.46 million) to fund a series of articles by The American Spectator magazine that dug into Bill Clinton's behavior as governor of Arkansas. The magazine reported that Clinton had asked state troopers to help procure women for him and that he had sexually harassed a state worker named Paula Jones. Jones's legal case against Clinton helped launch an independent counsel investigation that eventually exposed his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Hillary Clinton famously defended her husband at the time, saying the allegations were part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy'' heavily funded by Scaife. Clinton was impeached in the House of Representatives, but the Senate failed to convict him on charges brought by the Republican-dominated lower house.

Candidate Clinton met with the Tribune-Review's editorial board, including Scaife, last month. Afterward, Scaife wrote an editorial titled "Hillary, Reassessed,'' telling his readers he was impressed by the former first lady.

The Pennsylvania vote will divvy up 158 delegates to the August Democratic national convention, but the party's rules for apportioning those delegates mean that even a big victory will likely do little to close Obama's overall lead.

Geoff Garin, Clinton's new top strategist, faced David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, Sunday with each accusing the other of negative campaigning. But the one word that was not heard, as it usually is from Clinton campaign officials, was August.

In the past Clinton has vowed to fight for the nomination right to the convention late that month.

When asked on NBC television's "Meet the Press'' if Clinton might drop out if she turns in poor showings in the June 3 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, even if she wins in Pennsylvania, Garin said: "I would advise people to wait until June 3 when this process is played through, see how close, how close it is, how well the candidates are doing, how they're conducting themselves.''

Garin did not once repeat Clinton's determination to continue the struggle into the convention.

Also Sunday, Obama, who often argues that John McCain is the same as President George W. Bush, said the Republican presidential candidate would be better for the country than Bush had been.

"You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain,'' Obama said to cheers from a rowdy crowd at Reading High School in central Pennsylvania. Then he said: "And all three of us would be better than George Bush.''

The comment threatened to undercut Obama's efforts _ and those of the entire Democratic Party _ to portray McCain as offering nothing more than an extension of Bush's unpopular tenure. At the very least, it provided fodder that Republicans can exploit in the general election.

Earlier, Obama renewed his criticism that McCain offers the same "failed'' policies of the Bush administration on everything from Iraq to the economy.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded: "The remark underscores that John McCain has the strength to change America and move this nation forward. Barack Obama is a new face who represents old ideas.''

Obama spokesman Bill Burton shot back: "It's hard to imagine a president doing a worse job than President Bush but one thing is clear, John McCain wants to do his best to emulate Bush's failed economic and foreign policies and even his divisive political tactics.''

McCain, who has benefited from the acrimony generated between Clinton and Obama, reasserted his determination not to repeal tax cuts pushed through by the Bush administration. He also promised to assemble a "league of democracies'' to work against Iran's perceived efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

"I've already had conversations with (French) President (Nicolas) Sarkozy. Just recently, again, I had conversations with (British) Prime Minister (Gordon) Brown. We could get together a league of democracies.

We could impact the Iranians in a very significant way,'' McCain said on ABC's "This Week.''

McCain has said he would not rule out using American military force against Iran should it be on the verge of gaining a nuclear weapon and if all other efforts to deter Tehran had failed.

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Rice in Iraq, violence surges after Sadr threat

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed Iraq's crackdown on militias in a visit on Sunday to Baghdad, where the worst fighting in weeks erupted after Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened all-out war.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks during a meeting with Iraqi government leaders in Baghdad April 20, 2008. (REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz)

Rockets blasted the fortified Green Zone compound where Rice met Iraqi officials and praised their month-old campaign against Sadr's followers.

She had harsh words for the reclusive cleric, who on the eve of Rice's visit vowed "open war" if the crackdown continues. Sadr has not appeared in public in Iraq in nearly a year.

"He is still living in Iran. I guess it's all out war for anybody but him," Rice told reporters. "His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran."

A military spokesman said U.S. forces had killed 20 fighters overnight in a series of gunbattles and helicopter missile strikes in Sadr City, the east Baghdad slum that is a stronghold of Sadr's militia.

"I would say it's been the hottest night in a couple of weeks," the spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said.

Arriving on an unannounced visit, Rice met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and said she wanted to support what she called a new political "centre" in Iraq that has backed Maliki's anti-militia campaign.

"It is indeed a moment of opportunity in Iraq thanks to the courageous decisions taken by the prime minister and a unified Iraqi leadership," Rice said in brief televised remarks with President Jalal Talabani after they held talks.

A rebellion by Sadr's Mehdi Army militia -- whose tens of thousands of black-masked fighters control the streets in many Shi'ite areas -- could abruptly end a period of lower violence at a time when some U.S. forces are starting to leave Iraq.

Rice did not take questions during the televised appearance, and later told reporters she did not know how seriously to take Sadr's threat of war, made in a statement on his website.

Sadr's threat dramatically raises the stakes in his confrontation with Maliki, who has threatened to ban Sadr's movement from political life unless he disbands his militia.

ROCKETS HIT GREEN ZONE

Maliki's crackdown has led over the past month to Iraq's worst fighting in nearly a year, spreading through the south and Shi'ite parts of Baghdad. Although fighting in the south has died down, the Baghdad clashes have continued unabated.

The crackdown has been backed by all parties across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divide except the Sadrist movement.

Referring to that support for Maliki, Rice earlier told reporters there was a "coalescing of a centre in Iraqi politics" that was working together better than at any time.

As Rice met Maliki and other ministers, rockets could be heard hitting the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound where the prime minister has his office. Rice left the meeting about five minutes after an all-clear signal was given.

Washington says the rockets are fired from Sadr City by rogue elements of the Mehdi Army that it says are armed, trained and funded by Iran. Tehran denies responsibility.

Maliki's initial operation last month in the southern city of Basra went poorly, and U.S. commanders have acknowledged it was carried out hastily and badly planned.

Since then, however, the government forces have moved more carefully into Basra, and on Saturday they took control of the neighbourhood that had been the Mehdi Army's main stronghold.

"It has not been the smoothest of processes but it is an important step that the Iraqi government has taken," Rice said.

Sadr has pivoted back and forth between armed confrontation and peaceful politics throughout the five years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, while remaining hugely popular and staunchly hostile to the American presence he calls an "occupation".

He led two anti-American uprisings in 2004, but joined the political bloc that included Maliki and won parliamentary elections in 2005. Last year his followers quit the government for failing to demand an American withdrawal, but then Sadr abruptly declared a ceasefire, winning Washington's praise.

As his stance has changed, so has the response of American leaders. In 2004 they issued a warrant for his arrest, but more recently they praised his ceasefire and started referring to him with the respectful Arabic honorific "Sayyed".

Sadr's Mehdi Army has put up a fierce fight in Sadr City against Iraqi forces, who are backed by U.S. ground troops and air strikes. Fighting in the Sadr City slum has claimed hundreds of lives since last month.

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