By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sen. Barack Obama pressed his attack on Sen. Hillary Clinton's proposal to suspend the federal gas temporarily, calling it an effort at political pandering. Clinton defended the proposal as a response to the real needs of working people struggling to afford enough gas to get to work.

"This [issue] defines, I think, the difference between myself and Senator Clinton," Obama said, calling her proposal "a classic Washington gimmick." He said the proposal, to suspend the federal gas tax for three months and make up the hit to the federal budget by taxing oil companies, would save the average driver just 30 cents per day. "It is a political response to a serious problem we have neglected for decades," he said.

Two days before primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Clinton said she is meeting people across both states "who drive for a living, who commute long distances, who would save money if the oil companies paid this $8 billion this summer, instead of it coming out of the pockets of consumers."

Obama said Clinton had already pledged to tax oil companies to fund investment in clean energy.

The hour-long TV appearances, aired at the same time in many cities, brought Clinton before voters in Indiana and North Carolina on ABC's "This Week," while Obama went one-on-one on NBC's "Meet the Press."

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) acknowledged today that he must work harder to win the support of working-class voters who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in droves in last week's Pennsylvania primary.

"I am less familiar with some of these blue-collar voters than [Clinton]. ... They are less familiar with me than they are with her, and so we probably have to work a little bit harder," Obama said on "Fox News Sunday."

He added, "I've got to be more present. I've got to be knocking on more doors. I've got to be hitting more events. We've got to work harder."

Howard Wolfson, a top aide to Clinton, said now that Obama has lost working-class voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio, "I think Democrats do have questions about whether or not he is going to be able to reach out and successfully win over the kind of blue-collar voters that Democrats need to win in order to take the White House back in November."

He said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that Clinton is "somebody who can appeal to working people, people who have real concerns about this economy. She won overwhelmingly with those voters who were concerned about the economy."

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) pledged Sunday to cut billions of dollars in defense spending, vowing to be special interests' "worst nightmare," and aimed to dismiss suggestions that he has an explosive temper.

McCain said on ABC's "This Week" that he would seek to eliminate the federal budget deficit by cutting spending throughout government. The Pentagon drew special emphasis.

"I am cutting billions and billions out of defense spending which are not earmarks," he said.

The Arizona senator also defended a new Medicare means test he wants, saying that fairness demands that "wealthy people pay for their own prescription drugs."

"Why should we be paying for Warren Buffett or Bill Gates or wealthy Americans who are retired, making $160,000 a couple, not pay for their own prescription drugs? We've got a $1 trillion unfunded liability associated with the Medicare prescription drug bill. One trillion dollars that we're laying on the next generation of Americans. We don't want to do that," McCain said.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the steps necessary in Iraq before Washington can begin to withdraw troops are "already happening."

"Eight provinces in Iraq are already under provincial Iraqi control, where there are either no coalition forces or they are ... not involved in combat," Gates said, adding that Al-Anbar province, once one of the most violent parts of the country, appears to be the next headed in that direction.

So "what we have is half of Iraq where the transition has already been made to a different kind of role or mission for U.S. forces," Gates said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

He warned, however, that "it may take a while" for the rest of the country to get there, noting that Baghdad and Mosul are still wracked by heavy combat. He offered no timeline for the complete transition.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said Sunday that the leader for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, would be "absolutely" qualified to be president, should the voters elect him. But, he said, "I believe that my talent and my background and my experience, which has led to my judgment, ... qualifies me more."

In his first Sunday talk show appearance since locking up the GOP nomination last month, McCain criticized Obama and others for making too much of his comment that the United States could remain in Iraq for 100 years, or a period similar to the length of the U.S. presence in Germany and South Korea.

"Senator Obama and anyone who reads that [comment] knows that I didn't think we were in a 100-year war," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Days after going to Memphis to mark the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, McCain repeated that he "was wrong" to vote in 1983 against establishing a federal holiday to honor King. He added, as he did Friday, that he thought better of his mistake in time to back such a holiday in his home state of Arizona.

McCain also confirmed that he would meet next week with Secret Service officials next week and expects to have agents protecting him "shortly thereafter." McCain previously had refused such protection.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D), whose state holds the nation's next primary, on April 22, implicitly criticized a key rationale of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, saying today that it is not enough to be a unifying figure.

"I think the important thing to understand is who's got the best solutions for the problems, not just unification. That's great, but unification is not going to bring us health care," said Rendell, a supporter of Obama's opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Senator Clinton's health care plan is far more workable, far more achievable, and it will not only give universal health care, but it will drive down costs, which are essential," Rendell added.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate and Obama supporter, countered that Clinton's plan "is a non-starter, because it starts with a mandate that is unachievable in the Senate." He was referring to Clinton's requirement that every American must purchase health insurance.

By contrast, said Kerry, Obama's plan requires purchasing health care coverage only for children, and it "works up to a system where, at the back end, you may have a mandate, you will get to universal coverage."

Kerry also said that it will be very difficult for Clinton to win the presidency because of her high negativity ratings.

"Her negatives are now higher than her positives. It is very difficult to win the presidency when that's true," he said.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said today that the people around Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton practice "gutter" politics and that they feel entitled to the presidency, a day after an informal adviser to her campaign compared Richardson to Judas for endorsing Sen. Barack Obama.

James Carville told the New York Times that Richardson, a former member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet, had committed "an act of betrayal," adding that it "came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out [Jesus] for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic."

"I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson responded on "Fox News Sunday." "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

"I am very loyal to the Clintons," said Richardson, but he said he wanted something beyond "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton." "You know, what about the rest of us?" he asked.

He called for "a new generation of leadership," and added, "I think Obama represents this new change of not just bipartisanship, but bringing people together, bringing races together, bringing America's role in the world to be respected again."

Richardson defended the Clinton campaign against the accusation of an Obama ally who suggested that Bill Clinton was calling Obama's patriotism into question.

The former president said Friday, "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said today that there are limits to what the government can do to contain the unfolding economic downturn, but he defended the steps taken to stimulate the economy and stabilize the financial markets.

"When there are excesses, excesses we've seen in the housing market, a correction there is inevitable. You're going to see a correction. Can we outlaw the forces of gravity? You know, how much can government do?" Paulson said on "Fox News Sunday. "But this administration has been focused on this."

Paulson stood by the decision last week by the Federal Reserve to help bail out investment bank Bear Stearns. "I think we made the right decision. I think the Federal Reserve made the right decision here," Paulson said.

Paulson added that the financial markets remain strong but that the government "is prepared to do what it takes to maintain the stability of our financial system."

Updated 3:40 p.m.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, warned today that a divisive nomination battle could cost Democrats the presidency in November.

"[T]he only thing that can beat us is that we're divided," Dean said on ABC's "This Week." "I have to run these rules so that the losing side feels they've been treated fairly."

With the Democratic nomination battle largely on hold ahead of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Dean was one of several officials who addressed today whether Florida and Michigan should hold new votes so that their delegates can take part in August's national convention.

Both states held primaries in January, in defiance of an election calendar set up by the committee Dean chairs. In response, the DNC said that Florida and Michigan delegates would not be seated at the convention. With Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) in a close race, those delegates now hold more significance.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
The Clinton and Obama presidential campaigns sparred today over which candidate has the experience to handle a national security crisis after exchanging a series of controversial television advertisements on the topic.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton released an advertisement last week that told of a hypothetical 3 a.m. telephone call to the White House and warning, "Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call."

The Clinton campaign and its surrogates were pressed last week to identify a moment when she has faced such a national security crisis, and the question was posed again on several Sunday morning talk shows.

"[Y]ou don't get tested at 3 a.m. with a phone call like that unless you're the president," Howard Wolfson, a senior Clinton aide, acknowledged on ABC's "This Week." "You look at a person's totality of experience, the kind of judgments they've made, who has supported them, what kind of support that they've had."

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign responded to the ad by suggesting that Clinton had already faced such a moment and made the wrong decision, a point that Obama aide David Axelrod reiterated Sunday.

"On the most important question that Senator Clinton has had to deal with in foreign policy -- the red phone moment for her, the vote on the war in Iraq -- she gave the wrong answer," Axelrod said on ABC. "Senator Obama gave the right answer [and] said he thought it was a disaster to go into Iraq."