Obama: 'all three of us would be better'

by John McCormick

READING, Pa. - With the clock rapidly running out before Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, Sen. Barack Obama is working to make sure there are no questions from voters left unanswered.

Even as seats started to empty in the upper deck of a high school gymnasium here, the Illinois Democrat just kept taking questions from supporters during a "town hall" appearance that lasted more than a hour.

(That is a different stance than for reporters traveling with him, who have not been granted a question-and-answer session with the senator for nine days now.)

Although Obama had some criticism for Sen. John McCain, he also seemed to offer more praise than usual for the Arizona Republican.

"You have a real choice in this election, you know. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain," Obama started.

He probably could have just stopped right there. But then Obama continued in a way that could be viewed as conflicting at least slightly with his standard line about McCain representing a "third term" of President Bush.

"And all three of us would be better than George Bush," Obama added, referencing himself, Sen. Hillary Clinton and McCain.

Obama kept most of his focus, however, on Clinton, who needs a win in Pennsylvania to keep her campaign alive.

"I know there may be some folks here who are undecided, so I just want to make clear my argument, my closing argument in the last few days before the Pennsylvania primary," Obama said.

After first praising Clinton as "tenacious" and someone who has "done good work on behalf of her constituents in New York," Obama used a line of attack he often exercised in the closing days of his Iowa campaign.

"She says that lobbyists are real people and they represent real people and so it's not a problem that we have lobbyists and special interests funding campaigns," Obama said. "She's taken more money from lobbyists and special interests than any candidate, Republican or Democrat."

Obama has declined to accept contributions from federal lobbyists, although he does accept money from state lobbyists and those with strong ties to firms that do lobbying work.

"She's running ads now suggesting otherwise," he said. "In this campaign, I have not taken that money and nobody can dispute that, and if we get some, we give it back."

Obama also acknowledged the ugliness of the nomination fight.

"Our campaign's not perfect," he said. "There have been times when, you know, if you get elbowed enough, you eventually start elbowing back."

Noting the area's economic struggles, including the loss of candy making jobs to Mexico at a plant operated by The Hershey Co., Obama said he would work to change the nation's economic plight.

At almost every stop this weekend, Obama has mentioned a crowd he drew in Philadelphia Friday evening. Campaign aides said it totaled 35,000, the largest of his campaign.

"This is a feisty crowd," Obama told the audience here, which his campaign said totaled about 2,600. "What did you all eat this morning?"

Before this stop, Obama attended church services in Lebanon and also visited a diner to shake hands in Robesonia, Pa.

As he left the Heidelberg Family Restaurant, Obama said he was convinced that he had won over some votes by just stopping by.

"Absolutely," he said. "There's no doubt about it."

Obama is expected to hold an evening rally in Scranton, Pa.