Clouds part for Obama's appearance

TAMPA, Fla. --Presidential hopeful Barack Obama strode on stage Sunday for a fundraising event hours after a series of powerful thunderstorms raked the city.

"We were feeling a little worried," Obama told a crowd of about 2,000 who waited in strong, blustery winds to hear him speak. "The sun is shining on me, that's what's going on."

The Illinois Senator stuck to familiar themes in his first public Tampa campaign appearance -- ending the war in Iraq and spending more on health care, education and alternative energy.

"At each and every juncture in American history, ordinary folks said, 'We don't care about the world as it is, we imagine the world as it might be. We want to write a new chapter,'" Obama told the crowd. "That is the moment that we are in right now."

Obama criticized President Bush for a "tough luck, you're on your own" attitude toward average Americans on topics ranging from health care to jobs.

As he did Saturday in front of a crowd of about 20,000 in Atlanta, Obama drew the loudest cheers when he spoke of bring the troops home from Iraq.

"There is one thing we still have a chance of getting right in this war," Obama said. "And that is when our men and women come home, they shouldn't have to be begging for their disability payments. When they come, we should be treating them with the honor and dignity they deserve."

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arranged to meet privately with the Rutgers University women's basketball team Monday before delivering a speech at the university on women's leadership, her campaign said.

The 2008 Democratic presidential front-runner launched an online petition supporting the Rutgers team last week, after radio personality Don Imus came under fire for calling the players "nappy headed hos." He made the remarks on the air April 4, the morning after the team lost the NCAA championship game.

CBS fired Imus from his long-running syndicated show Thursday, the same day he met with the team to apologize for his comments.

Clinton has long planned to speak at Rutgers' New Brunswick, N.J., campus to mark the 35th anniversary of Eagleton's Center for American Women and Politics, spokeswoman Jennifer Hanley said Sunday.

Hanley called the appearance "a very important moment to talk about many of the issues raised in the last several weeks."

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, who significantly trails his opponents in fundraising, plans to tell voters that his shoestring budget makes him the only candidate not tied to special interests, a spokeswoman said Sunday.

The Ohio congressman raised just $344,891 in the first three months of the year, according to paperwork filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. After campaign expenses, Kucinich was left with about $163,887 on hand.

By comparison, Democratic front-runners Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama collected $26 million and $25 million, respectively, in campaign contributions during the same period.

"If you get $25 million from special interests, it means by the time you get to the Oval Office, you're hog tied -- you can't get us out of the war in Iraq, you can't get us health care for all," Kucinich press secretary Sharon Jimenez said.

Messages seeking comment were left Sunday at campaign offices for Obama and Clinton.

The Kucinich campaign has been focused on developing a broad base of donors willing to make small contributions, Jimenez said. The average contribution was $74 per person, with more than 3,600 of its 4,855 donors giving less than $50, campaign manager David Bright said.

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Associated Press Writer Beth Fouhy in New York contributed to this report.