PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AFP) — Barack Obama Tuesday touted his kinship with workers and veterans, trying to quell a row over elitism rocking his campaign, a week before the next Democratic primary clash.
New polls meanwhile suggested that the furor sparked by Obama description of some small town Americans as "bitter" had yet to dent his hopes in Pennsylvania, where votes are cast on April 22, though his rival Hillary Clinton clung to a narrow lead.
The former first lady needs to win big in the gritty northeastern state as she plots a long-odds comeback in the party's frenetic White House race.
Obama, fighting off claims by Clinton that he is an "elitist," recalled his days as a community organizer in the poorer sections of Chicago, at a conference of construction workers in Washington.
"Politics didn't lead me to working folks -- working folks led me to politics," he said, a day before clashing with his rival in a high-stakes campaign debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
"It's time we had a president who didn't choke saying the word 'union.'"
Later, in the small western Pennsylvania town of Washington, Obama remembered his grandfather's World War II service and pledged to improve healthcare for former servicemen.
"The true measure of patriotism is not taken on Veteran's Day or Memorial Day. The true measure is how we provide for those who serve and for their families," he said.
Obama has struggled for five days to quell a political firestorm over his remarks, at a fundraiser in liberal San Francisco last week, as Clinton has repeatedly lashed him, eyeing the votes of blue collar voters.
A Quinnipiac University poll Tuesday showed Clinton had checked Obama's momentum in the state, but did not unearth an immediate slump in the Illinois senator's support as he took volleys of attacks in the "elitist" row.
Clinton's six-point, 50 to 44 percent lead was unchanged from that registered in a poll by Quinnipiac last week, which followed weeks in which Obama steadily cut into her wide advantage.
"Senator Hillary Clinton is fighting off Senator Barack Obama's drive to make it a close race in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the university's polling institute.
A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll out Tuesday suggested that Obama may have escaped damage among Democrats in Pennsylvania.
It gave Clinton a lead over Obama of 46 percent to 41, down from double-digit margins in earlier polls, and also had her losing in both Indiana and North Carolina, which both vote next on May 6.
Republican presumptive nominee John McCain meanwhile sought to shore up his economic credentials, amid growing fears of recession, making his own raid into Pennsylvania in a bid to scoop up white swing voters for November's election. The Arizona senator called for a fuel tax holiday, to help drivers daunted by soaring gasoline prices in the peak driving season between Memorial Day on May 26 and Labor Day on September 1.
"Because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging, and just about everything else, these immediate steps will help to spread relief across the American economy," McCain said in a speech in Pittsburgh.
Clinton policy advisor Neera Tanden however lashed McCain for offering a "George Bush-redux of corporate windfalls and tax cuts for the wealthy that will bankrupt our government and leave working families with the bill."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said he was offering "a gift basket of new tax cuts for corporate America at a time when some CEOs are making more in a day than some workers make in a year."
Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates, total nominating contests won and the popular vote going into the final stretch of the Democratic race.
But neither candidate can now reach the 2,025 pledged delegates needed to win the nomination, so the outcome hinges on the votes of nearly 800 party officials or "superdelegates" who can vote however they like at the Democratic convention in August.
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