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Clinton, Obama in desert battle
18/01/2008 21:14 - (SA)
Nevada - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on Friday chased one another across the arid, southwestern state of Nevada, touting economic rescue plans a day before their next nominating clash.
The Democratic rivals' campaign blitz was designed to fire up supporters ahead of the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, the first voting showdown since Clinton's New Hampshire primary victory last week avenged Obama's win in Iowa.
Republicans saturated the airwaves with campaign advertising in South Carolina, ahead of a crucial primary election on Saturday, with polls showing Arizona senator John McCain and former Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee in a tight struggle.
With fears of a recession seizing the US political agenda, Clinton did not even wait for President George W. Bush to unveil his plans for fiscal stimulus, before condemning them.
Clinton said: "The Bush approach would fail to fully help the millions of lower income senior citizens who live on fixed incomes and are under enormous financial stress.
"It would disproportionately leave out African-American and Hispanic families who have, on average, lower incomes than white families."
$70bn economic plan
The former first lady is touting a $70bn economic jumpstart plan which includes an emergency component to head off home foreclosures, and a $25bn emergency aid plan for families saddled with high heating bills.
Clinton was scheduled to focus on her plan during a flurry of campaign stops in Nevada. She is also calling for a further $40bn in immediate tax rebates for working and middle class families.
Obama has his own $75bn economic rescue plan, and like Clinton planned campaign events in gamblers' paradise Las Vegas, the western city of Reno and the northern outpost of Elko.
A new poll on Friday by the Las Vegas Review Journal had Clinton nine points up on Obama in the state, 41% to 32% ahead of the notoriously tough to poll caucuses.
Obama however has the support of the top culinary workers union, an edge which some experts say could be crucial in an increasingly nasty election which has featured bracing attacks from both sides.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board published on Friday, the Illinois senator dismissed Clinton's claims he lacks sufficient experience to be president.
'Clinton has no management experience'
"Senator Clinton keeps touting her experience, but has no management experience that I can see in her resume," Obama told the paper, relating how he had taken on the former first lady's political machine.
He cited his presidential campaign "where I went from zero, starting from scratch, to compete with a legendary political organisation 20 years in the making, built by a former president, is not an accident."
"It shows my capacity to put together a team and point it in a direction I think is important."
Both the Nevada and South Carolina contests are the latest key twist in the delicately poised presidential races, with no clear front-runner on either side, running into the February 5 "Super Duper Tuesday" flurry of more than 20 nominating elections.
'POW for President'
McCain, the decorated Vietnam war veteran and Arizona senator, has been fighting off a withering attack on his conduct as a war prisoner, reminiscent of the personal slurs which helped derail his 2000 presidential campaign in the southern state.
A flyer intercepted by the campaign featured a caricature of McCain in a cell, and was emblazoned with the words "POW for President" and "Hanoi Hilton songbird" a reference to the infamous Vietnam war prison.
McCain and fellow candidate, former senator and screen star Fred Thompson were also reportedly the victim of automated phone calls questioning their opposition to abortion by a group which backs Huckabee.
The latest South Carolina poll by MSNBC had McCain leading Huckabee 27% to 25% with Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's Michigan primary, on 15%.
McCain took his latest shot at Huckabee, who shot to prominence by winning the Iowa caucuses on January 3, with a new ad featuring his rival in various television interviews praising McCain's qualifications to be president.
"Senator McCain, no matter what anyone may say, is a genuine conservative," Huckabee is shown as saying in the advertisement, dubbed "Trust Huckabee."
"John McCain is a hero in this country. He's a hero to me."
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