Obama or Hillary? Beer drinkers split

PENNSYLVANIA | Dem rivals scurry to tap support in key primary

READING, Pa. -- Just a few blocks from the factory where they make York Peppermint Patties, White House hopeful Barack Obama told 2,600 Pennsylvanians he could do a better job than Hillary Clinton of bringing jobs back to this hard-hit economy.

The Hershey company announced earlier this year it will close the peppermint patties plant and move the jobs to Mexico, where the product can be made more cheaply.

"Two hundred and sixty-eight workers are scheduled to lose their jobs when the local Hershey's plant transfers that down to Mexico later this week," Obama said.

Actually, a security guard at the plant said Sunday he heard it would stay open through December.

"They're going to frickin' Mexico," an angry social worker, Kim Wittich, 50, said, after her 6-week-old foster daughter became the "101st" baby kissed by Obama.

Obama and Clinton continued their marathon tour Sunday of the Keystone State, which holds its all-important primary election Tuesday. Both candidates are promising voters they will change the tax laws to deny breaks to companies that transfer American jobs to other countries such as Mexico or China.

Clinton finished the night with a rally at Penn State, where 2,000 students and State College residents cheered when she said, "I am proud to be the daughter and the sister of two Penn State graduates." Obama drew a crowd of 22,000 here last month.

As both campaigns flooded the airways with increasingly negative ads about each other, each candidate says the other is being too "negative."

"We've got to change the tone of our campaign," Obama said. "There's been a lot of discussion over the last several days about, 'How did this campaign get so negative?' 'How do we get distracted?' 'How do we exploit divisions?' Look, our campaign's not perfect. [But] you get elbowed enough, eventually, you elbow back."

A Sunday poll by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showed Clinton five percentage points ahead of Obama, leading him among bowlers, hunters, gun owners and women. But Obama was holding his own among self-identified beer drinkers, who split 44 percent to 44 percent between Clinton and Obama.

Obama embarrassed himself in bowling a 37 last week, and he made a controversial comment about small-town Pennsylvanians who "cling to guns." Both candidates have let themselves be filmed drinking beer, with Clinton even downing a shot with her beer.