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Candidates appeal to Wisconsin voters

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign released a detailed economic plan yesterday on the eve of Wisconsin's presidential primary, as Barack Obama snuck in an unannounced visit with John Edwards, who has not yet endorsed either of his former rivals in the close Democratic race.

On the Republican side, John McCain, the party's presumptive nominee, tried to differentiate himself from US President George W. Bush on such issues as climate change and government spending, while offering conservatives a "no new taxes" pledge and hitting the Democratic candidates for supporting an early Iraq withdrawal.

Both Democrats had planned to campaign on Sunday in Wisconsin, but they were grounded by a heavy snowstorm that blanketed the Midwestern state.

Although reporters normally travel everywhere with Obama, he left them behind on Sunday to fly to North Carolina in secret from his hometown of Chicago.

His campaign confirmed the meeting with Edwards, but wouldn't comment on the possibility of an endorsement.

Both Democratic candidates are actively seeking Edwards' support because of his appeal to working-class Democrats, who are heavily represented in upcoming primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Clinton stayed in Milwaukee, where she ate breakfast at a diner and visited a Hispanic grocery on Sunday.

There are 92 Democratic delegates at stake in Wisconsin's primary and 20 in caucuses in Obama's native Hawaii today. Polls show a tight race in Wisconsin even as Clinton advisers have publicly downplayed their expectations for the state. The first lady appears to be looking ahead to bigger races next month to regain her lead.

Obama, who usurped Clinton as the leader by a slender margin last week, has been campaigning in Wisconsin for most of the week. Clinton arrived in Wisconsin on Saturday after spending most of the week campaigning in Ohio and Texas, two bigger states that vote on March 4.

The former first lady had scaled back plans to campaign in Wisconsin, but was to try to squeeze in some of the canceled events yesterday. Obama and his wife, Michelle, planned to campaign in Wisconsin yesterday.

Clinton's campaign released yesterday a 13-page blueprint for fixing the economy, detailing her plans to achieve universal health care, address the home foreclosure crisis and develop jobs for the middle class.

The pamphlet, which will be distributed to voters at campaign events and posted online, outlines many of the ideas she talks about on the campaign trail each day. But by pulling them together, the document resembles a populist manifesto -- with Clinton championing the needs of working-class voters over corporate and business interests.

Meanwhile, Clinton's advisers argued on Sunday that Obama had abandoned a commitment to accept public funding if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination.

Last week, Obama's campaign walked back from a proposal the Illinois senator made last year to accept public financing for the general election if the Republican nominee also agreed to do so. Such a commitment would level the financial playing field with McCain, whose campaign has had a harder time raising money than Obama, who has broken all fundraising records.

Candidates who take public funds for the general election would have to return the money they raised.

Obama's campaign said accepting public financing was an option he would consider if he wins the nomination, rather than a hard pledge.

Clinton advisers seized on the shift, suggesting it highlighted Obama's pattern of making promises to voters and revising them later as circumstances change.

"We don't need lectures on campaign finance from a campaign that's accepted more money from lobbyists than any other Republican or Democratic candidate who's run for president," Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded. "This is a question we will address if and when Obama is the nominee."

Clinton next heads to Ohio, where her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was already campaigning on Sunday.

After winning eight straight head-to-head contests, Obama led the chase for nomination delegates 1,280 to1,218. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the presidential nomination at the party's convention this summer in Denver.

On the Republican side, McCain, in a taped interview aired on Sunday on ABC television's This Week, said he was confident he could persuade Americans that the Democratic candidates' call for an early Iraq withdrawal would result in a "catastrophe" with al-Qaeda claiming victory.

McCain denied the Democratic candidates' argument that voting for him would in essence amount to a third Bush term.

"How am I different? ... Climate change is an issue. Spending is another issue," McCain said, referring to his support for measures to combat global warming and wasteful government spending.

"I can out-campaign them, and I can out-debate them, and I can out-perform them ... My vision is more in keeping with the majority of Americans," said the 71-year-old Arizona senator, a former Vietnam prisoner of war

He added that he is "making progress" in solidifying his support among conservative Republicans. He said there will be "no new taxes" during his administration if he is elected president.

McCain was expected to receive an endorsement from former president George H.W. Bush in Houston, Texas, yesterday, Republican officials said. The endorsement is a further nudge for conservative activists to get over their distaste for McCain, and for former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to quit the race.

But Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, has refused to drop out until McCain secures the 1,191 delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party's convention this September in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
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