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Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told backers in the key primary state of Pennsylvania that rival Barack Obama cannot be counted on to pull troops out of Iraq, while Republican John McCain planned to deflect criticism of his economic record with a call for federal aid for burdened homeowners.
Clinton and Obama were campaigning for Pennsylvania's hard-hit working class voters with promises to reverse the country's economic slide. With Obama in the lead for the nomination, Clinton relies on a big victory in the state to keep her candidacy alive. There are 158 delegates at stake in the April 22 vote.
Rare departure
Clinton and Obama returned to Pennsylvania after spending Tuesday in the US capital along with McCain. They made the rare departure from their campaign schedules to question the top US commander in Iraq and the American ambassador to the country.
With the conflict obviously on her mind, Clinton spoke on Wednesday at a high school near Pittsburgh, telling an audience that included retired US military officers that she would end the war.
Apparently trying to differentiate herself from Obama - who vows to remove American troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office - Clinton questioned his sincerity.
"One candidate will continue the war," she said, referring to McCain's support for the conflict. "One candidate only says he'll end the war. And one candidate is ready, willing and able to end the war." Clinton raised the issue after former Obama adviser Samantha Power who told a Scottish newspaper last month that the Illinois senator's 16-month pullout deadline was a "best-case scenario" to be revisited if he wins. Obama aides have said Power was not speaking for the campaign.
Obama reminded his suburban Philadelphia audience that he had opposed the Iraq war before it began and said it had "piled up a mountain of debt that has weakened our economy."
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