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New York: Hillary Clinton reached out to poor black voters as she and other presidential candidates tapped into Americans' recession fears ahead of important races in South Carolina and Nevada.
Both Democratic and Republican races are extremely tight going into today's contests. The Republicans, after three major earlier races that netted three separate winners, lack a clear front-runner.
Polls in Nevada showed Clinton and fellow Democrat Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat with rival John Edwards.
Campaigning in the crime-ridden, largely-black city of Compton, California, Clinton pledged that as president she would improve the economic lot of black people.
Days after she and Obama declared a truce on racial matters, Clinton, who wants to be the first female president of the US, is seeking support from blacks, who were a key constituency for her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
She outlined a so-called "green collar" jobs programme to develop alternative sources of energy, and said she would spend $200 million (Dh734.6 million) over five years to help ex-offenders transition from prison. She also promised to assist the troubled city's mayor with his goal of "birthing" a new Compton.
"I know something about birthing," Clinton said. "You need a president who will be a partner. Who says, 'What is it I can do to make sure this birth is easy and successful?'"
Clinton's comments on economics came as Americans increasingly worry about a possible recession, rising gas prices, falling stock prices and a staggering housing market. A recent CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll found six in 10 Americans believe a recession has already started.
Bill loses his cool
With the presidential race so close a heated exchange between former President Bill Clinton and a television news reporter was circulating on the internet. During a campaign stop for his wife in California, Clinton became visibly annoyed when KGO-TV reporter Mark Mathews asked him whether Hillary's campaign should take a stronger stand against a union's lawsuit to keep casino workers from caucusing at special precincts in Nevada. The union has ties to Hillary Clinton.
"I had nothing to do with that lawsuit and you know it," said Bill Clinton, who had been in the area talking to residents and real estate professionals about home foreclosures.
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