By Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 22, 2008

TAMPA, May 21 -- Sen. Barack Obama sought on Wednesday to win over general-election voters in the critical swing state of Florida, as rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to remain in the race until the state's invalidated primary results are counted, even if that means taking the fight to the Democratic National Convention in August.

Obama began his first Florida campaign swing in eight months with a downtown Tampa rally for 15,000 supporters, the start of a three-day tour aimed at introducing the senator from Illinois to core general-election constituencies. Clinton (N.Y.) held three events in South Florida and sought to rally support for her long-shot quest to defeat Obama, despite another setback on Tuesday, when Obama won the Oregon primary and claimed a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton elevated the state's status in the Democratic primary process to a test of American democracy and a civil rights cause, recalling the bitter recount of 2000 that clinched the White House for George W. Bush.

"The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear: If any votes are not counted, the will of the people isn't realized and our democracy is diminished," Clinton said in Boca Raton. "You learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren't counted and a candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner."

Clinton added: "I am here today because I believe the decision our party faces is not just about the fate of these votes and outcome of these primaries, it's about whether we will uphold our most fundamental values as Democrats and Americans."

Clinton told the Associated Press she would not leave the race until the impasse over Florida and Michigan is resolved. "I feel very strongly about this," she said of the issue.

All of the Democratic candidates agreed to boycott January primaries in Florida and Michigan after the states violated party rules by selecting early dates. Nonetheless, the elections were held and Clinton won both, though Obama's name was not on the ballot in Michigan.

The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee will vote May 31 on whether to seat both states' delegates at the Democratic convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver. Full recognition would help Clinton close the delegate gap with Obama, but Democratic officials have said the best-case scenario is that each state will be granted half its delegates, leaving Clinton still well behind.

But neither candidate can win without the support of superdelegates, and the inclusion of Florida and Michigan could strengthen Clinton's argument that she is the better candidate to take on Republican John McCain in November.

Clinton supporter Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, continued to raise doubts about Obama on Wednesday. He said in a telephone interview that Clinton has been the superior candidate over the past few months and that Obama's losses in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky could haunt the party in November.

"Are we going to pick a candidate that will literally walk almost lame into the Democratic National Convention?" he asked.

McEntee said McCain will be a formidable opponent, one who is "distancing himself from Bush every day" and whose status as a war hero will make him attractive to many of the voters Democrats need to win.

Obama, on the other hand, cannot seem to get over his struggles with working-class voters. "I think he has a problem with the blue-collar worker and relating to that worker," McEntee said.

Obama spent Wednesday along the Interstate 4 corridor, a heavily populated swath in central Florida, as part of an effort to introduce him to Democratic voting blocs that may not know him well. In Kissimmee, outside Orlando, he held a town hall meeting in a Puerto Rican neighborhood. On Thursday, Obama will speak at a Boca Raton synagogue, and on Friday he is to deliver a speech about Cuba and Latin America in Miami.

Obama largely ignored the question of whether Florida's results should be counted, assuring supporters in Kissimmee that the state will be represented in Denver.

At the Tampa rally, Obama credited Clinton as a worthy opponent, but his main focus was on McCain, who has held an edge in this GOP-leaning state, and who has been a frequent presence.

McCain spoke in Miami on Tuesday, vowing to continue the Cuba trade embargo, while jabbing Obama for saying that as president, he would meet with Cuban President Ra¿l Castro. Obama is expected to rebut McCain directly in his Friday speech, but he fired a first shot in Tampa on Wednesday.

"He has been spending the last week describing his foreign policy by explaining who he won't talk to," Obama said. "That's your foreign policy? He basically wants to perpetuate the same errors George Bush has made."

He also traded barbs with McCain over ethics. "We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as the defender of fairness and opportunity for every American," Obama said in Tampa.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds countered by challenging Obama's assertion that federal lobbyists did contribute or play an active role in his campaign. "John McCain has an unmatched record of fighting the influence of special interests," Bounds said.