Clinton, Obama compete in Wisconsin

updated 3:30 p.m. ET Feb. 17, 2008

MILWAUKEE - Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton found their campaigns slowed Sunday by a snow and ice storm that blanketed Wisconsin just days ahead of Tuesday's primary, but the former first lady was already looking ahead to bigger races in March to help her rebound in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On the Republican side, John McCain, the party's presumptive nominee, tried to differentiate himself from President George W. Bush on such issues as climate change and wasteful government spending, while hitting the Democratic candidates for supporting an early Iraq withdrawal.

Obama, who usurped Clinton as the leader by a slender margin a few days ago, has been campaigning in Wisconsin for most of the week. He had to cancel a campaign stop Sunday afternoon in Kaukauna in the Fox River Valley due to the bad weather.

Clinton, meanwhile, only arrived in the Midwestern state Saturday after spending most of the week campaigning in Ohio and Texas, two bigger states that vote March 4.

She had planned to wrap up her personal campaigning in the state with three events Sunday. But her Wisconsin campaign spokesman Carly Lindauer said a Sunday afternoon meeting in De Pere has been postponed until Monday morning because it was too risky to travel there. She still had events planned later Sunday in Wausau and Madison.

The New York senator had originally planned to stay in Wisconsin until Tuesday morning, but scaled back those plans. Her advisers have downplayed Clinton's chances in Wisconsin even as polling indicates the race could be close.

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

On Tuesday, there are 92 Democratic delegates at stake in the Wisconsin primary and 20 in caucuses in Obama's native Hawaii.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said Sunday that the race is "essentially a tie" with a lot of states yet to weigh in.

"We feel that we're going to do everything we can to win in Wisconsin on Tuesday," Wolfson said on CBS television's "Face the Nation." "And then we go on to Ohio and we go on to Texas, where we feel very good. So this race is far from over."

Obama's senior strategist, David Axelrod, appearing on the same program, agreed the race is "not over," but said the Illinois senator now has "a strong lead" two-thirds of the way through the nomination campaign.

"We've won twice as many states as Senator Clinton. We've won 14 of them by 20,000 votes or more," Axelrod said. "And we've done it by bringing not just Democrats but independents and disaffected Republicans to the polls, building the kind of coalition we need to win in November."

In Wisconsin, Clinton and Obama made back-to-back appearances at a state Democratic Party dinner in Milwaukee Saturday night, focusing on which of them offers the best chance to defeat McCain and change the country's direction.

‘Toe to toe’ with McCain
Clinton said she knows the choice between her and Obama is a difficult one and that either would make history as the first female or black Democratic nominee, but said she was the only candidate who could "go toe to toe" with McCain.

"The choice is really whether we're going to have a fighter, a doer and a champion in the White House, somebody who gets up every single day with determination, backbone and, yes, toughness," she said. "We need to get back in the solutions business."

Obama countered that he would achieve solutions by rallying the country behind his causes and bringing Democrats, independents and Republicans together.

"All of us should be in the solutions business but all too often it ends up being business as usual," Obama said.

Obama said he could put together a winning coalition to defeat McCain, so the "disastrous policies" of the Bush administration would not be continued, by offering the sharpest contrasts with the Republican candidate.

"If I am the nominee of this party, John McCain will not be able to say that I agreed with him about the war in Iraq, because I didn't."

MORE FROM

Section Front

Obama campaign head gets big book deal Officials turn down Franken request Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent Franken lead at 49 with absentees left to count Minn. Senate winner won't be known in 2008 First Read: 'Twas the seventh week of recount... Franken opens first lead in Minn. Senate race Mom of Palin daughter's boyfriend arrested Minn. court weighs rejected absentee ballots Minnesota panel reviews disputed ballots Section Front   Add headlines to your news reader: