By HENRY C. JACKSON
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 10, 2007; 9:56 PM
DUBUQUE, Iowa -- Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said the U.S. will have to withdraw its troops from Iraq, regardless of the costs, if serious reforms are not made by the Iraqi government.
"In the absence of those conditions we're just throwing money away," Obama said during a campaign stop in Dubuque.
"We have to be honest that, in the absence of these changes, if these changes aren't made, there is not much we can do" to help the Iraqi people, he added.
An estimated 2,300 people attended a town hall meeting to hear Obama on the first of two days of campaigning in Iowa that was to include stops in five eastern Iowa cities. He later attended a rally at a high school in Davenport, where 4,000 people showed up to hear him speak.
Aides said Iraq would be the focus of the trip, and members of the audience were given copies of a speech Obama gave opposing the war in 2002, when he was still a state senator.
"It's time to end this war and bring our troops home," Obama said Saturday, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd in the Loras College Field House.
He said there are no good options left in Iraq.
"We only have bad options and worse options," he said.
Obama also called for reform on funding for veterans, saying the country is not doing enough to support troops returning from Iraq.
"We need to put veterans services on equal footing with other social services in this country," he said. "A veteran shouldn't have to come hat in hand to get the services they deserve."
___
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) _ Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday promised to bring America's "invisible" middle class out of the shadows, saying the Bush administration has for too long ignored working families.
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.
___
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."
On the Iraq war, McCain said the "titanic" struggle pits supporters of the nation's values against those of radical fundamentalism.
"We lose this war and come home, they'll follow us home," McCain said.
Asked why some have criticized him for not being conservative enough and why he is trailing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the polls, McCain said Giuliani is "an American hero" who did important work in the wake of Sept. 11.
"I think you should judge people by their record," McCain said. "I am conservative across the board and I will match my record with anybody in America much less anybody who is running."
___
RENO, Nev. (AP) _ Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani defended Newt Gingrich, who has admitted having an extramarital affair as he pursued President Clinton's impeachment after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Giuliani, speaking to reporters during a campaign stop late Saturday afternoon in Reno, said the episode shows no one is perfect and the former House speaker can learn from it.
"I think the American people realize, and I'm speaking for myself now, we've made a lot of mistakes, and hopefully we've done some good things in our lives and it's probably always been that way," he said.
"The American people have to judge who is the most effective leader. They will not find a perfect person, and that's probably good because we all have imperfections. Sometimes when you go through things like that in your life, you can become a better person," he said.
Giuliani, who has been married three times and has chilly relations with his children, visited Reno for a private, $1,000-per-person fundraiser.
While he called Gingrich "one of the smartest people in American politics," the former New York City mayor said it was premature to say whether he would consider him as a running mate.
Many polls identify Giuliani as the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary. Gingrich is considered a possible GOP presidential contender, although he has not announced any intention to run.
___
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ South Carolina is back on track to hold the first Democratic presidential debate after organizers of a debate next month in New Hampshire moved their event back to June.
The candidates have made firm commitments to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn to appear at the April 26 debate at his alma mater, South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, said Morton Brilliant, the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
The 90-minute debate at the historically black college will be televised by the MSNBC cable network.
"South Carolina is going to be the key to the primary in 2008. And it's clear that we now have the first full debate of the campaign," Brilliant said.
New Hampshire had originally scheduled Republican and Democratic presidential debates for April 4 and April 5, but many of the leading candidates couldn't come because of trips to Iraq or other scheduling conflicts. The debates have now been moved back to June.
___
HOUSTON (AP) _ Rep. Ron Paul, a strict constitutionalist and fierce anti-war critic, will formally declare his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday when he appears as a guest on a C-SPAN call-in program, a campaign official said.
Paul, R-Texas, created a presidential exploratory committee in January, allowing him to begin collecting money on behalf of his bid. Kent Snyder, chairman of that committee, said Saturday that Paul would make his candidacy official on Monday.
It will be Paul's second try for the White House. He was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988.
___
Associated Press writers Jim Davenport in South Carolina, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire, Martin Griffith in Nevada and Joe Stinebaker in Texas contributed to this report.