Clinton suggests building boom to fix infrastructure, create jobs

PHILADELPHIA - Hillary Clinton told a gathering of Pennsylvania labor unions yesterday that a building binge to repair American infrastructure could create 3 million jobs over 10 years, linking her political travails to the nation's economic malaise with a declaration that "we're on the comeback trail as a country."

Clinton identified herself with the activism of Mother Jones, but found her greatest kinship with Philadelphia's most tired cliché. She entered the hotel ballroom to a live-band rendition of the "Rocky" theme - which Republican John McCain used at rallies during his January comeback - and cited the movie pugilist as a political role model.

"Let me tell you something. When it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common," Clinton said. "I never quit. I never give up."

Barack Obama would agree. "We won 11 contests in a row, and that didn't knock her out," he said yesterday on NBC's "Today" show.

Clinton, who leads by double digits in most Pennsylvania polls, has been trying to reclaim the "underdog" mantle ever since Senator Bob Casey gave it to Obama during a surprise endorsement Friday.

SASHA ISSENBERG

On the second stop of his biographical tour, John McCain returned yesterday to his high school, where he remembered the rambunctiousness that got him into trouble and the special teacher who helped put him on the right path.

The presumptive Republican nominee also used the setting of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., to promote his "Troops to Teachers" proposal which would encourage veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to go into the classroom.

"The sense of heightened responsibility and duty to a cause greater than themselves that veterans were taught in the discipline and code of conduct of the armed forces make many of them excellent candidates to impart those virtues to our children and help them see the value of learning as a means to self-improvement and much nobler ends," he said.

McCain said he wants students to have teachers like he had in William B. Ravenel, the English department head, the junior varsity football coach, and an Army veteran who served with General George Patton in World War II. McCain also launched a Web ad featuring Ravenel as an American hero. "It's not always the famous who inspire us," the narrator says.

FOON RHEE

While some Democrats might wish it were real, it was only Hillary Clinton's April Fool's joke - bowling for the Democratic nomination.

"I am challenging Senator Obama to a bowl-off," she told reporters yesterday in Pennsylvania.

She offered to spot Barack Obama two frames, but even that might not be enough for a close contest.

Obama has been rapped by pundits for his lack of bowling ability, on full display in Altoona, Pa., on Saturday night.

Obama knocked down a paltry 37 pins in seven frames (a perfect score is 300 over 10 frames). "My economic plan is better than my bowling," he said.

"It has to be," a man called out.

Laughing, Obama walked over and hugged him.

Clinton, who apparently is not a big bowler either, proposed a winner-take-all contest. "It is time for his campaign to get out of the gutter and allow all the pins to be counted," she said.

She wasn't done yet: When the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, she said, she would be a president "ready to bowl on day one."

Clinton was deadpan through the entire statement, then declared, "Happy April Fool's Day."

FOON RHEE

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the superdelegates who may ultimately decide the Democratic Party's presidential nominee have a right to vote as they wish and that the drawn-out contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be allowed to reach its conclusion.

"These superdelegates have the right to vote their conscience and who they think would be the better president, or who can win, but they also then should get involved in the campaigns and make their power known there," Pelosi said in an interview aired yesterday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Pelosi recently drew objections from Clinton backers when she said she shared Obama's view that superdelegates - nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders - should be guided by the vote for pledged delegates. Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates earned in primaries and caucuses, but Clinton leads Obama in endorsements from superdelegates. Overall, Obama has 1,632 delegates to Clinton's 1,500, according to the latest Associated Press tally. It takes 2,024 delegates to win the nomination.

Pelosi repeated her view that it would it be harmful to the party if superdelegates were perceived to overturn the will of voters, but made clear she was not suggesting Clinton withdraw from the race.

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