Clinton says margin won’t matter for a Pennsylvania victory

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that a win in the Pennsylvania primary – no matter how narrow the margin – will be all she needs to claim victory.

“I don’t think the margin matters” in today’s vote, she said on NBC’s “Today Show.” “A win is a win.”

Trailing rival Barack Obama nationally in pledged delegates and in the popular vote, Clinton sought to downplay expectations about her prospects in Pennsylvania – where she once held a two-digit lead in the polls – which have now narrowed.

Noting that Obama has outspent her 4 to 1, Clinton said if Obama doesn’t win Pennsylvania, “what does that say about his ability to win the big states that a Democrat has to win in order to win the White House?”

Obama countered that he is counting on Pennsylvanians to vote for the candidate who can win in November against Republican John McCain.

“I think it should be about who’s going to win in November and I think that’s going to be me,” he said. Despite Clinton’s primary victories in states like California and New York, Obama added, “If anybody thinks that I’ll lose California or New York in the general election – there’s no chance of that happening.”

As the bitterly contested six-week campaign in Pennsylvania ends, and the spin begins over who won and why, the increasingly negative tone of television ads and debating points also drew comment from the candidates.

Clinton, who lost the support of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich over her negative ads against Obama in Pennsylvania, defended them, saying “any issue is fair game.” Complaining that the Obama camp’s ads have been “far more negative” than hers, Clinton said on CBS’ “Early Show” that “anybody who knows what we’re going to be up against in the fall against the Republicans understands that if we don’t contest each other in the primary, we’re in for a big surprise.”

Asked about Clinton’s comment that Obama’s ads were more negative than hers, the Illinois senator said: “I’m sure she’d say that. But I don’t think there’s any objective observer out there who would make that same argument.”

Saying that Clinton’s “got to be heavily favored to win” Pennsylvania, Obama said he is hoping his “uphill” campaign will discredit the negative ads.

“This is an example of, sort of, politics as being all about tactics and process and attack and counterattack, as opposed to solving problems,” he said on the CBS show. “I’m making a bet that the American people are sick and tired of that kind of politics.”

For her part, the New York senator suggested that she has been treated differently because she is a woman. “Nobody knows quite how to cover a woman running for president,” she said. “We’ve never had someone get this close.”

Campaigning outside Philadelphia, Clinton ordered a cheese steak at a restaurant as she continued her assault against Obama, brushing aside the suggestion that she has to score a big win today to remain competitive.

“A win is a win,” she said before arguing that it is Obama who has more questions to answer.

“Why can’t he close the deal?” she said. “Why can’t he win a state like this one?”

Obama, campaigning in Pittsburgh with his wife Michelle and Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney, talked to voters at Pamela’s P&G Diner, eating pancakes and hash browns and chatting about the economy, healthcare and the cost of a gallon of gas. Later he told reporters: “We closed a big gap. We were down 20. This is always an uphill climb but what we feel is we’ve made significant progress.” Noting 200,000 newly registered voters, Obama said: “A lot of it is going to depend on turnout today. And it’s really hard to gauge.”

During the campaign in Pennsylvania, Obama said McCain would be an improvement over President Bush, prompting a fresh assault from Clinton. Today he defended his comment.

“To say that John McCain and some of his instincts may be better than George Bush’s, that’s a low bar,” he said, acknowledging that McCain is offering “warmed-over versions of Bush foreign policy and economic policy.”

“So, there’s no contradiction there,” Obama said.

Obama’s approach to Republicans may be having an impact. John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group mutual fund, said on CNBC that he switched parties to vote for Obama in Pennsylvania’s primary this morning.

“I switched my Republican registration to Democratic and voted for Obama,” Bogle said. Saying he does not know who he will support in November, the 78-year-old Bogle said, “I just want the best candidate we can get and I’ll go back to my Republican registration tomorrow.”

McCain meanwhile continued his tour of “forgotten” communities, reminding voters in economically depressed places like Alabama and Ohio that they can rebound, much as his own presidential campaign did last year after it was declared out of money and momentum.

“You’ve been written off a few times yourselves, in the competition of the market,” the Arizona senator told a crowd at Youngstown State University today. . “You know how it feels to hear that good things are happening in the American economy – they’re just not happening to you.”

Arguing for “pro-growth” policies to create new jobs, McCain said that “dramatic change can happen” and promised to “to turn things around in this city.”

Levey, traveling with the Clinton camp, contributed to this story from Philadelphia

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