US Elections:HILLARY CLINTON has compared herself to fictional boxing legend Rocky Balboa, declaring that she will not bow to pressure to withdraw from the Democratic presidential race, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington.
"Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people," Mrs Clinton told a group of trade unionists in Philadelphia, where Sylvester Stallone's Rocky was set.
"No one knows better than organised labour how important it is to have a fighter on your side. When you send someone to that bargaining table, you need the strongest, toughest, most determined person you've got. Not someone who is just going to talk about problems. But someone who will roll up her sleeves and get the job done."
A number of Barack Obama's prominent supporters, including Senate judicial affairs committee chairman Patrick Leahy, have called on Mrs Clinton to get out of the race, arguing that she cannot catch up with Mr Obama in the remaining 10 nominating contests.
She trails Mr Obama among the delegates who will choose the Democratic nominee at a convention in Denver next August and in the popular national vote. However, Mr Obama yesterday distanced himself from calls for his Democratic rival to step aside. "She has certainly earned the right to stay in this race as long as she wants. She is running a formidable race."
Both candidates campaigned yesterday in Pennsylvania, where polls show Mrs Clinton with a double-digit lead ahead of the April 22nd primary. The former first lady, who has seen her lead in the state shrink in recent days, sought yesterday to contrast the toughness she has shown during the campaign with Mr Obama's soaring rhetoric.
"The Republicans aren't going to give up without a fight," she said. "And no matter how beautiful your rhetoric, the Republicans aren't going to turn off their attack machine - it doesn't have an off-switch." For his part, Mr Obama has attempted to tone down his lofty image, going bowling with supporters. His performance in the bowling alley was so poor, hitting the gutter more often than the pins, that Mrs Clinton yesterday challenged him playfully to a bowl-off.
"It's time for his campaign to get out of the gutter. For all the pins to be counted," she said. "And when this game is over the American people will know they'll have a president who's ready to bowl on day one."
While the Democrats continue to battle over the nomination, Republican candidate John McCain has been raising funds, consolidating his grip on the Republican National Committee and reintroducing himself to voters in a multi-state tour of key places in his personal biography.
Visiting the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, yesterday, Mr McCain paid tribute to his teachers and spoke about his notorious temper outbursts.
"As a young man, I would respond aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly to anyone whom I perceived to have questioned my sense of honour and self-respect. Those responses often got me in a fair amount of trouble earlier in life," he said.
"In all candour, as an adult I've been known to forget occasionally the discretion expected of a person of my years and station when I believe I've been accorded a lack of respect I did not deserve.
"Self-improvement should be a work in progress all our lives, and I confess to needing it as much as anyone."