CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Barack Obama wants to look ahead. Hillary Clinton can only look as far as Tuesday.

Those differing approaches to the Democratic presidential campaign were evident Monday as both candidates were in West Virginia on the same day for the first time.

The front-running Obama made quick work of the state, flying in for a speech in Charleston before departing for Kentucky, which votes on May 20. And in those remarks he readily conceded what most expect: that Clinton will handily beat him here Tuesday in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary.

That's what Clinton is counting on as well, as she mounted a second day of relentless campaigning, even though public opinion polls here show her comfortably ahead. Her campaign hopes a dramatic win will re-focus public attention on the Democratic contest, even though Obama and much of the national media seem intent on moving on to the general election.

In the meantime, Obama's campaign said it had now received pledges of support from 281 superdelegates nationwide, giving him a margin of about 10 over Clinton. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine) was the latest to declare for Obama.

In Charleston, Obama delivered the sort of address that seems positioned for the fall election, as he took on a subject close to heart of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain: veterans affairs.

Obama accused the Bush administration of not doing enough to support troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan—and criticized McCain for opposing legislation that would help veterans finance college educations.

"He thinks it's too generous. Now, I could not disagree more," Obama said. "At a time when the skyrocketing cost of tuition is pricing thousands of Americans out of a college education, we should be doing everything we can to give the men and women who have risked their lives for this country the chance to pursue their American dream."

After the speech, those remarks earned him a payback salvo from the McCain camp, which contended that Obama failed to support American troops by voting against funding bills for the Iraq war.

"It is absurd for Barack Obama to question John McCain's commitment to America's veterans, when Obama himself voted against funding our nation's veterans, and troops in the field during a time of war," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Those supplemental spending bills contained provisions to help fund health-care for veterans, the McCain campaign said.

In his Charleston speech, Obama referenced the service of his grandfather in World War II and then spoke at length about sacrifices made by the families left behind by troops going on extended tours of duty. He said he would devote more money for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, telling the crowd that suicides by veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan could ultimately outpace the number killed in battle.

He accused the Pentagon of underreporting casualty figures. "For years, this administration has refused to count all of our casualties in uniform. In Iraq alone, tens of thousands of troops who were injured or fell ill have not been counted in our casualty numbers, going against the military's own standards from past wars," he said. "It's time to stop hiding the full cost of this war. It's time to honor the full measure of sacrifice of our troops, and to prepare for the cost of their care."

Meanwhile, Clinton moved eastward across the state, making an afternoon stop in the economically ravaged coal town of Logan. There, before a packed high school gymnasium, she seemingly pulled at the threads of all of her campaign themes to date, telling the crowd that she would fix the troubled economy, sever America's dependence on foreign oil and be a strong commander-in-chief.

Interestingly, Clinton, her voice hoarse, did not employ the feisty, when-I'm-knocked-down-I-get-up rhetoric that has marked many of her recent events. The crowd did it for her. "Keep fighting, Hillary!" several yelled.

Her surrogates told the crowd of the need for Clinton to finish with a large victory margin Tuesday in order to improve her standing in the nationwide popular vote and show that she is the choice of a majority of Americans. She called the primary "a turning point" in the race and said a resounding win here would have political implications beyond the state.

"No Democrat gets elected unless they carry West Virginia," she said. "West Virginia will give us a real indicator of which way the political winds are going to blow in the November election."

Robby Shell, a resident of Logan, said his state would punish Obama for campaigning so little here. A Clinton blow-out, he said, "will send a message that working people, blue-collar people trust Hillary Clinton. They don't know Obama."




By James Oliphant, Chicago Tribune, May 12, 2008