White House hopefuls sprinted toward today's voting showdowns, with Republican John McCain battling a smear campaign and top Democrats vowing to revive the stalling US economy.
McCain and former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee waged a close quarters struggle in South Carolina, where the southern state's notorious hardball politics was in full swing ahead of the Republican primary election.
Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards touted economic plans in California, before heading to another tight battleground in Nevada, which holds caucuses today.
Both contests are crucial to the delicately poised presidential races, with no clear front-runner on either side, running into the Feb. 5 "super Tuesday" flurry of more than 20 nominating elections.
McCain, the decorated Vietnam war veteran and Arizona senator, fought off a withering attack on his conduct as a war prisoner, reminiscent of the personal slurs which helped derail his 2000 presidential campaign in the southern state.
"This is a pivotal election," McCain told supporters at a rally in Columbia, the state capital.
"I know that a lot of nasty things are going on. Ignore that kind of stuff, my friends," he said.
A flyer intercepted by the campaign featured a caricature of McCain in a cell, and was emblazoned with the words "POW for President" and "Hanoi Hilton songbird" a reference to the infamous Vietnam war prison.
McCain and fellow candidate, former senator and screen star Fred Thompson were also reportedly the victims of automated phone calls questioning their opposition to abortion by a group which backs Huckabee.
The latest South Carolina poll by MSNBC had McCain leading Huckabee 27 percent to 25 percent with Mitt Romney, who won Tuesday's Michigan primary, at 15 percent.
Clinton, Obama and third ranked Democrat John Edwards meanwhile focused on fears of a recession and the under-pressure US middle class, with dueling forums on the economy in California.
Obama, vying to become the US' first black president, was touting his own economic plan, as his campaign team also looked ahead to the Democratic primary in South Carolina on Jan. 26, which will feature a key role for African-American voters.
"The price of the American Dream is going up. We've never paid more for health care, or child care, or college," he said at a campaign stop in northern California. It's harder to save and retire. And too many Americans have lost faith that their leaders can or will do anything about it," he said.
The MSNBC poll among Democrats in South Carolina had Obama stretching a lead at 40 percent, with Clinton at 31 percent and Edwards at 13 percent.
Obama held a narrow lead over rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in a Jan. 11 to Jan. 13 Reno Gazette-Journal poll in Nevada, which showed him with 32 percent support, Clinton with 30 and Edwards with 27.
Obama meanwhile took a swipe at Clinton after she pounced on his answer in a debate on Tuesday that his biggest weakness was personal disorganization at work, to suggest he was unprepared to be president.
"Senator Clinton indicated she was too impatient to move the country forward -- I thought the question was what's your biggest weakness ... I should have said that I like to help old ladies across the street," Obama said on National Public Radio.
Meanwhile Clinton laughed off questions about Obama being a potential vice presidential running mate in comments to students at California State University at Northridge late on Thursday.
Asked if she believed Obama could partner her in an eventual election campaign Clinton said she was "superstitious" and "can't think that far ahead."
"He [Obama] is an extraordinary man and he has so much to give our country," Clinton said. "I hope that however it works out that he will be a major figure in American politics for years and years to come."
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