Clinton, Obama battle at The Last Big State Contest as Pennsylvania votes

Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama collided Tuesday in the Pennsylvania primary, the last of the big-state contests in a Democratic presidential campaign growing more negative the longer it goes.

With 158 delegates at stake, Pennsylvania offered the largest prize remaining in a primary season that ends on June 3.

Obama began the night with a delegate lead, 1648.5-1509.5, out of 2,025 needed to win the nomination.

Both rivals sought to shape expectations in advance. Obama said he expected to lose, but narrowly, and worked to limit any gains Clinton made in the delegate chase.

"We think we've made enormous progress" though "it's an uphill battle," Obama said as he greeted patrons at a Pittsburgh diner Tuesday. He noted that polls show a tighter race than just a few weeks ago, but said: "We still, I think, have to consider ourselves the underdog."

"We've got a great organization. A lot of it's going to depended on turnout," Obama added.

For her part, Clinton dismissed the notion that she needed a blowout victory to quell doubts about her candidacy.

"I think a win is a win. Maybe I'm old fashioned about that," she told reporters. "I think maybe the question ought to be, why can't he close the deal with his extraordinary financial advantage? Why can't he win a state like this one if that's the way it turns out ... big states, states that Democrats have to win."

The former first lady greeted voters at a polling place in Conshohocken, in suburban Philadelphia. She also visited a local restaurant there and picked up a Philly cheese steak.

Clinton's aides disputed suggestions she would prevail by a double-digit margin.

Beyond that, a defeat for Clinton could spell the end of her candidacy. But a sizable win would strengthen her claim to being the stronger general election opponent, an argument she has made to superdelegates who hold the balance of power at the party convention in Denver in August.

Whatever the outcome, the six-week run-up to the primary was notable for close-to-the-ground campaigning normally reserved for the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, and for the decidedly negative tone of its final few days.

Philly cheesesteaks were commonplace. Obama went bowling as he reached out for the support of working-class voters, and Clinton showed her blue-collar bona fides with a shot of Crown Royal and a beer chaser.

Flush with cash, Obama reported spending $11.2 million on television in the state, compared with $4.8 for Clinton.

The tone of the campaign was increasingly personal.

"In the last 10 years Barack Obama has taken almost $2 million from lobbyists, corporations and PACs. The head of his New Hampshire campaign is a drug company lobbyist, in Indiana an energy lobbyist, a casino lobbyist in Nevada," said a Clinton commercial that aired in the final days of the race.

Obama responded with an ad that accused Clinton of "eleventh-hour smears paid for by lobbyist money." It said that unlike his rival, he "doesn't take money from special interest PACs or Washington lobbyists — not one dime."

To the delight of Republicans, the six-week layoff between primaries produced a string of troubles for the Democrats.

Obama was forced onto the defensive by incendiary comments by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then triggered controversy on his own by saying small-town Americans cling to their guns and religion because of their economic hardships.

Clinton conceded that she had not landed under sniper fire in Bosnia while first lady, even though she said several times that she had. And she replaced her chief strategist, Mark Penn, after he met with officials of the Colombian government seeking passage of a free trade agreement that she opposes.

McCain, the Republican nomination already his, rose in the polls as he prepared for the fall campaign.

The remaining Democratic contests are primaries in North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico, and caucuses in Guam.

Bill Clinton `Firing Up' Rural Voters For Hillary

Hillary Clinton criticizes Saudi oil wealth while her husband benefits from its largess. She opposes a Colombian trade agreement that he supports. And she condemns China while his foundation solicits donations there.

With a record like that, former President Bill Clinton could well be running against his wife instead of stumping for her. The couple's differences, and his frequent blowups on the campaign trail, though, haven't hurt much with her supporters. As the campaign heads into the Pennsylvania primary today, he still manages to excite voters in rural areas and small towns where she has her best chance for victory over Barack Obama.

``I don't think he's an issue, especially in Pennsylvania, where he's always been well-loved,'' said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut. ``He's firing up the Clinton base and making sure they stay motivated.''

Clinton's stumbles on the campaign trail have sometimes put the focus more on him than her and cut into his popularity.

He angered blacks after Obama's South Carolina victory in January by noting Jesse Jackson had won there, too. He lost his temper in front of California Democrats when asked about former ally Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama, 46, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. And he defended his wife for claiming she came under fire in Bosnia by falsely asserting she said it once ``late at night when she was exhausted.''

`The Race Card'

Clinton yesterday accused the Obama campaign of playing ``the race card on me'' after the South Carolina primary, a charge that drew a rebuke from Obama. Clinton told a Philadelphia radio station his comments were ``twisted'' after he likened Obama's primary victory to Jackson's.

Clinton was asked if he regretted that comparison, after a Pennsylvania official said she felt he was marginalizing Obama as ``the black candidate.''

``No, I think that they played the race card on me,'' he said. ``We now know from memos from the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.''

Obama scoffed at Clinton's remarks.

``Hold on a second, so former President Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he's suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it?'' he said to reporters today at a Pittsburgh diner. ``Ok, well you better ask him what he meant by that.'' He denied there was any plan to use the comments for political purposes.

`Can't They Disagree?'

Clinton's appearance in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh yesterday, where he attended rallies, was a departure for the 61-year-old former president. He spends most of his time campaigning in smaller communities, where the policy differences and verbal gaffes don't appear to have resonated.

``Can't they disagree? My husband disagrees with me,'' said Janice Onofrey, 58, who owns a gift shop in Ford City, Pennsylvania. ``He's wonderful. He's charismatic.''

Bob Dull, 60, a retired school guidance counselor, was in Clarion, Pennsylvania, to see Clinton speak on April 16. ``A president, here in Clarion,'' he said. ``It's a big deal.''

Clinton has visited dozens of towns and small cities in Pennsylvania, including Cranberry Township and New Castle, with populations of fewer than 30,000. He campaigns in high school gyms before audiences of just a few hundred people.

At every stop, he saturates local media and fuels chatter, as he did in California and Texas, where his wife won primaries.

``Don't you let anyone tell you she can't win,'' he told a crowd in a high school gym in Kittanning, Pennsylvania.

`First Known Visit'

The campaign is also applying that strategy to Indiana and North Carolina, which will hold primaries May 6. Clinton this month toured Seymour, Indiana, population about 20,000, and Bedford, 14,000. On April 4, he greeted 1,800 people on the campus of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina. A college press release hailed the stop as the ``first known visit of a former president to Scotland County.''

``He's an asset in any rural area because he will draw 10 percent of the population,'' said Hillary Clinton strategist Ace Smith.

Still, the campaign has taken a toll on his public standing. Before the nominating battle began, Bill Clinton assured intimates he could deliver a decent share of the black vote for his wife, a New York senator.

It hasn't turned out that way. As Clinton barnstormed South Carolina in January, his scolding tone sparked acrimony. Obama, an Illinois senator, won 85 percent of the black vote.

A March NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed voters viewed him negatively by a margin of 45 percent to 42 percent; that compared with a 48 percent to 35 percent favorable rating a year earlier.

Mixed Picture

Last week's Bloomberg News/Los Angeles Times survey of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina suggests a mixed picture. Overall, Democrats in those states consider him more of an asset than a liability, though he gets negative ratings from self-described independent Democrats, who may be the swing voters in those contests.

Those misgivings have grown as the former president's business dealings have become a campaign issue.

Since leaving office, he has earned at least $800,000 in speaking fees supporting a Colombia trade agreement that his wife opposes, the Huffington Post reported.

Candidate Clinton criticizes oil interests and tells voters ``you will not see me holding hands with the Saudis.'' Her campaign confirmed that Saudi donors have given money toward her husband's presidential library.

Boycott Ceremony

Senator Clinton has urged President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. The Los Angeles Times reported Bill Clinton's foundation accepted a donation from Chinese Internet company Alibaba Inc., which is accused of aiding the government in tracking Tibetan activists.

Hillary Clinton, 60, shrugs off questions about how her husband might influence her administration, saying she has ``a different attitude toward trade.''

Clinton is likely to boost turnout for his wife, said Eric Plutzer, academic director at the Penn State Survey Research Center.

``People are thinking of his time in office,'' Plutzer said. ``People don't begrudge ex-presidents the opportunity to parlay that into income.''