Obama Camp Making Plans for General Election

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Obama Criticizes McCain, Bush Over Attacks

Barack Obama criticized Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for 'dishonest and divisive' attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists.

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Clinton also directed her attention to "people on TV" who are calling for her to drop out, while continuing to argue that the overall vote count in the Democratic race shows that she is the best candidate to take on McCain.

"All of those people on TV who are telling you and everybody else this race is over and I should just be graceful and say it's over, even though I've won more votes, those are all people who have a job, those are people who have health care," she said at a speech in Loretto, on the grounds of the distillery for Maker's Mark bourbon. "They're not the people who I'm running to be a champion for. I'm running to be a champion for all of you."

Clinton has also targeted Washington pundits in an ad her campaign started airing on Friday in Oregon. The ad shows video of George Stephanopoulos, Chris Matthews and Tim Russert -- who have all declared the race over -- as a narrator says: "In Washington, they talk about who's up and who's down. In Oregon, we care about what's right and what's wrong."

Clinton hopes winning the popular vote will convince superdelegates -- Democratic party officials and elected officials whose support will determine who wins the race -- that she is the strongest candidate against McCain.

But Clinton has the most overall votes only if the count includes Florida and Michigan, where neither candidate campaigned and the results were disqualified because the states scheduled primaries in defiance of party rules. Additionally, Obama's name was not on the ballot in Michigan. Clinton's formulation also apparently does not factor in estimates from a handful of caucus states that do not release overall vote counts.

In Oregon, Obama kept his focus on Republicans, whom he said he hopes to draw to his side in November. During a visit to a hospital in Eugene, nurse Carol Ann Anderson, 66, a registered Republican and self-described conservative, said she did not like any of the candidates and is considering voting for Obama, "given what the choices are."

Another Republican, X-ray technician Ron Spooner, 42, told the senator he is "torn between you and Senator McCain" but that he specifically has concerns about Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Spooner asked bluntly.

Obama paused before advising Spooner to "look at what I've done for 20 years, starting as a community organizer." When Spooner pressed him further, Obama said, "The nice thing is we're going to have four more months, five more months, of active campaigning where I think you can watch and see: Am I consistent? Do I stay honest? Let me take your advice, and we'll try to make sure I stay honest in what is sometimes a dishonest profession."