Clinton predicts close race in Pennsylvania

In an unusually wide-ranging news conference this afternoon, Hillary Clinton touched on topics including the crucial Pennsylvania primary and the possible role of Al Gore if she ends up in the White House.

"It's going to be a close race," she told reporters about the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, noting that rival Barack Obama just wrapped up a week-long bus tour and is spending heavily on TV ads.

"I am being outspent," she said, claiming the "Rocky" underdog role which she and Obama have been jockeying for this week.

On Gore, Clinton said she would be interested in any role the former vice president would play. "I wish Al Gore were in the seventh year of his second term," she said, referring to the razor-thin 2000 election that was ultimately settled by the US Supreme Court.

Obama said Wednesday that Gore would play a key role in his administration, especially on global warming.

Asked about reports that she had told New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has endorsed Obama, that Obama can't win in November, Clinton said she strongly argues that she would be the strongest Democratic nominee, and sometimes that gets misinterpreted.

"I can win," she said at the news conference, held on the airport tarmac in Burbank, Calif., where she will appear later on "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "I know I can win. That's why I'm in it."