Obama Presses for Iraqi Reforms

Republican presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen. John McCain, center, meets supporters during a reception at the home of Eddie Floyd Friday, March 9, 2007, in Florence, S.C. Looking on at left is South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster.(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain) (Mary Ann Chastain - AP)

Four years after John Edwards built his campaign around the theme of "two Americas" _ one for the wealthy and one for the poor _ Clinton sought to draw a line between two kinds of Americans _ the visible and invisible.

The latter group includes single parents who can't afford health insurance, small business owners worried about energy costs, and college students struggling to pay their tuition, she said at a New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraiser.

"You are invisible to the oil companies earning record profits while you pay more at the gas pump. You are invisible to the companies who outsource your job, or lay you off or end the promise of your pension," she said. "For six long years, President Bush and the Washington Republicans have looked right through you."

Clinton also accused the Bush administration of turning a blind eye to emergency workers whose health was harmed while responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, soldiers returning from combat and children in failing schools waiting for more federal money.

"And if you're a career government scientist raising the global warming alarm; a conservationist trying to protect the environment; a government accountant looking into no bid contracts that have cost the tax payers billions of dollars; even if you're a Republican U.S. Attorney trying to enforce the law impartially _ they've tried to make you invisible to the rest of us," she said.

"Well, they're not invisible to us. They're certainly not invisible to me. And when we retake the White House, they will no longer be invisible to the president of the United States," she said.

Clinton was speaking at the party's annual 100 Club Dinner, where 1,000 tickets were sold, the most in the event's 47-year history. Typically, 500-800 tickets are sold.

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CONWAY, S.C. (AP) _ Republicans spent their way into losing control of Congress, presidential candidate John McCain says.

"The reason why we lost that election, my dear friends, was because we let spending get out of control," McCain told a breakfast crowd Saturday. "We came to power in 1994 to change government and government changed us."

McCain told the 225 people gathered at a restaurant on a bend in the Waccamaw River, not far from Myrtle Beach, that Republicans began to value power over principle, which caused spending to lurch completely out of control.

"It's got to stop," he said of the excesses, which also led to corruption among members of Congress. "We're going to have to clean up our act."