Final Push for Democrats in Pennsylvania
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
Senator Barack Obama greeted patrons at a diner in Scranton, Pa., on Monday. More Photos >
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By JEFF ZELENY and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: April 22, 2008
SCRANTON, Pa. — Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama opened their final push across Pennsylvania here on Monday, rallying their committed supporters and seeking to win over a dwindling lot of undecided voters in the most expensive — and exhaustive — presidential primary in state history.
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Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign rally in Scranton, Pa., on Monday. More Photos »
After a weekend of sharp exchanges, the Clinton campaign began airing a new television commercial featuring images of Osama bin Laden and the attack on Pearl Harbor, and closing with a terse question: "Who do you think has what it takes?" The Obama campaign circulated a flyer from Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, saying: "Vote your hopes, not your fears."
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, responded sharply to Mrs. Clinton's new ad. "It's ironic that she would borrow the president's tactics in her own campaign and invoke bin Laden to score political points," he said. "We already have a president who plays the politics of fear, and we don't need another."
Reinforcing the message of her new advertisement on the stump, Mrs. Clinton told a crowd in her father's hometown of Scranton on Monday morning that it would be dangerous for voters to "take a leap of faith" by electing Mr. Obama, who she argues is untested.
"I don't want you to take a leap of faith or have any guesswork" about the next president, she said. "We've had enough of that," she said, referring to President Bush.
She also asserted that Mr. Obama was offering promises while she was offering solutions. "Some people say. 'Yes we can,' but that doesn't mean you will," she said. "I believe we will, if we have the right leadership."
As the Democratic rivals dashed across Pennsylvania on Monday in the final hours of the six-week primary campaign, a new poll by Quinnipiac University showed Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Obama by 51 percent to 44 percent, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
"I'm not predicting a win," Mr. Obama said in a round of morning-radio interviews, before arriving at the Glider Diner here to greet voters. "I'm predicting it's going to be close and that we are going to do a lot better than people expect."
Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager, Maggie Williams, sent out a mass e-mail pleading for volunteers to help work phone banks and perform other get-out-the-vote work on Election Day.
"I can't emphasize enough what a difference it makes to have Hillary's best supporters — people just like you — making calls and speaking directly with voters" Ms. Williams wrote. "To put it as simply as I can, more calls equal more votes."
The e-mail also solicited donations but made no mention of the campaign's difficult financial situation.
Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to swing through Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia by nightfall. Mr. Obama plans to close his day with a rally in Pittsburgh.
On Sunday, Mr. Obama had sharpened his tone against Mrs. Clinton. In television commercials and in appearances before crowded rallies, he cast her in one of the most negative lights of the entire 16-month campaign, calling her a compromised Washington insider. Mrs. Clinton responded by suggesting that Mr. Obama's message of hope had given way to old-style politics and asked Democrats to take a harder look at him.
Over the weekend, both campaigns deployed thousands of paid workers, volunteers and surrogates to strategic points across the state. Mr. Obama, seeking to lock up the nomination, was outspending Mrs. Clinton two-to-one on television advertising in the state, with a barrage of commercials assailing her health care plan and suggesting that she was captive to special interests. Mrs. Clinton fired back on Sunday, criticizing his health care plan and saying he was going negative to mask his poor performance in last week's debate.
Voters in Pennsylvania go to the polls Tuesday, the first to cast ballots since Mr. Obama won the Mississippi primary on March 11. The gap made for the longest campaign in a single state since the opening bell of the presidential contest, in Iowa on Jan. 3, and left time for the candidates to bruise each other, and themselves.
"There's been a lot of discussion over the last several days about how this campaign gets so negative, how we get distracted, how we exploit divisions," Mr. Obama told voters in Reading on Sunday afternoon. "Look, our campaign's not perfect. There've been times where, you know, if you get elbowed enough, eventually you start elbowing back."
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