CLINTON: The New York Times notes that Clinton seems to be in a better campaign mood -- that she's campaigning as if she's got some momentum on her side. "If many of her advisers are worried and even gloomy about her prospects on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton appears charged up (to the point where her voice is increasingly hoarse). She is talking to reporters and joking around more, not less, and she has been taking time to show good cheer on 'Saturday Night Live' over the weekend and on 'The Daily Show' on Monday." More: "For better or for worse, Mrs. Clinton has come full circle on her message, again embracing the strategic assumptions with which she began the campaign in January 2007: That she is the most able and experienced Democrat to be commander in chief, to manage the economy, and to win what she calls a 'wartime election' in November.

"It is a sobering message, not the kind that rouses people to their feet to cheer. But it is the sort of competency-based rationale that was so much a part of her years as first lady and her campaigns for the United States Senate in 2000 and 2006."

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at how Clinton's campaign got to this point. "Hillary Clinton may be one of the most disciplined figures in national politics, but she has presided over a campaign operation riven by feuding, rival fiefdoms and second-guessing of top staff members." More: "Already, some in Clinton's senior staff are pointing fingers over what went wrong, with some of the blame aimed at Clinton herself. As the race unfolded, neither Clinton nor anyone else resolved the internal power struggles that played out with destructive effect and continue to this day."

"Chief strategist and pollster Mark Penn clashed with senior advisor Harold Ickes, former deputy campaign manager Mike Henry and others. Field organizers battled with Clinton's headquarters in northern Virginia. Campaign themes were rolled out and discarded, reflecting tensions among a staff bitterly divided over what Clinton's basic message should be. The dispute over Bill Clinton's schedule shows how easily plans can unravel. Some campaign staffers didn't expect to win South Carolina overall, but 'our strategy was to go after specific districts in South Carolina' to add to the delegate total while freeing Bill Clinton to spend time in other Southern states, said a Clinton campaign aide. But Bill Clinton said 'I need to be in South Carolina,'" the aide said. 'It was a one-man mission out there.'"

Meanwhile, here's how Penn keeps winning the argument inside the campaign. "The dispute flared anew after Clinton's defeat in South Carolina. At a meeting in the Arlington, Va., headquarters, Penn and others gave a PowerPoint presentation on what was billed as a new message: Clinton would be championing 'Solutions for America.' Henry, then the deputy campaign manager, objected, according to people at the meeting. He said it sounded like a repackaging of the old message that Clinton was a strong leader rather than a warm person. Indeed, a top item in the PowerPoint was 'strength and experience' -- a theme Clinton had been stressing for months."

"Henry asked: 'Is this what we're doing, or is it up for discussion?' Penn said Clinton had already approved the new message. At that point, Henry asked if the campaign had learned anything from its defeats. It should be clear, he said, that voters want to see a more human side of her. 'This is not bringing out the humanity in her,' Henry said, according to people present."

"Penn countered that the reason for many of her defeats, particularly in smaller states, had been a lack of organization, not the message -- a swipe at Henry and others in field work. In the end, Clinton backed Penn. Henry left the campaign. And Clinton has been casting herself as someone in the 'solutions business' -- a message she repeats as she makes a stand in Ohio and Texas."

Bill Clinton pointed out again yesterday that he's just a pawn on his wife's political chessboard, NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann reports. "Look, I'm not even the candidate," he said to giggles from the audience at Texas A&M University. "I am just a free campaign aide."

"But," he added, "I have an informed opinion about the candidate." The line, which earned the former candidate scattered chuckles, is part of Clinton's last minute push as his wife's No. 1 surrogate in Texas. Yesterday, he gave an impassioned appeal for change, noting how intense interest in the race evidences the nation's hunger for something new. "The country is groaning and moaning and screaming for change," he declared firmly, "to turn this country around and get moving again."

OBAMA: In what is almost like a Perry Mason moment, after days of denying that anyone with the campaign had any contact with Canadian officials, the AP got its hands on a memo of the meeting between Obama's chief policy adviser, Austan Goolsbee, and the Canadian consulate in Chicago. "The memo is the first documentation to emerge publicly out of the meeting ... but Goolsbee said it misinterprets what he told them. The memo was written by Joseph DeMora, who works for the consulate and attended the meeting."

"Goolsbee disputed a section that read: 'Noting anxiety among many U.S. domestic audiences about the U.S. economic outlook, Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign. He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.'"

"'This thing about "it's more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans," that's this guy's language,' Goolsbee said of DeMora. 'He's not quoting me.'"

"Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Goolsbee's visit was not as an emissary from the campaign, but as a professor from the University of Chicago. He was not authorized to share any messages from the campaign, Burton said."

The Rezko trial starts today, and Obama is getting his share of coverage because of it. "Obama is not implicated. But U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve made it likely that Obama's name would come up in court when she ruled that prosecutors could introduce evidence that Rezko used 'straw donors' to give to politicians, apparently including Obama. The relationship between Obama and Rezko was based on more than money."

"They met in 1990 when Rezko, then starting a low-income housing development business, noticed a news article about Obama being elected the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. One of Rezko's partners called Obama on Rezko's behalf and offered him a job, according to a Chicago Sun-Times account last year."

The front page of the http://www.nypost.com/seven/03032008/news/nationalnews/smeared_o_has_cross_words_100255.htm">New York Post: 'O' My God. And The New York Post: "Barack Obama yesterday lashed out at political enemies who are spreading false rumors that he's a closet Muslim as he proclaimed, "I pray to Jesus every night. I am a devout Christian… I pray to Jesus every night and try to go to church as much as I can."

Obama may avoid "the game playing" of politics, but he certainly is not above creating opportunities to needle Senator Clinton, NBC's Abby Livingston points out. Twice yesterday, during question and answer sessions at events in Ohio, Obama was asked about education. And twice, he managed to veer his answer toward competitiveness, globalization, NAFTA and jabs at Clinton.
 
When asked about No Child Left Behind in Nelsonville, Ohio, Obama addressed his thoughts on that specific policy, but added, "I'm going to keep speaking out against NAFTA and other trade agreements that don't provide reciprocity. But here's the truth: is globalization is not going away. If Senator Clinton talks about a pause in our trade deals, the world will not pause. China's not pausing. India's not pausing. The only way we are going to compete is if our children are better prepared, better equipped," he said.
 
And in Westerville, Obama was asked another education question -- to which he responded:  "There's been a lot of debate here in Ohio about NAFTA, and I've always opposed NAFTA because it didn't have labor standards and environmental standards that were enforceable and safety standards. And you know, Senator Clinton and the Clinton administration thought it was the right thing to do, and I think it was destructive. But what is true, is that even if we get our trade deals right, globalization's not going to go away."

HUCKABEE: Per NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger, Huckabee asked "what's the hurry?" and questioned why Republicans and political insiders are rushing him to drop out of the presidential race. "I'm not understanding why some people are in such a rush to get this settled when I don't know that there's a bomb sitting under anybody's chair that's gonna go off if we don't have the nominee all settled," Huckabee said at a press conference yesterday.
 
He was asked whether he counted Romney delegates who said they would back McCain when tallying whether McCain had reached the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination outright. He said delegates with have to "make some type of declaration and pledge" to be counted for McCain. "I just want to make sure before I, you know, drain the bathtub, you know, that we've actually been in the water," he said. "And I think that's a little important for us to be very mindful of."

MCCAIN: McCain's "campaign is busy fielding questions over his decision to pull out of the public financing system, his support of the Iraq war, lobbyists working in his campaign, an endorsement from a controversial evangelical, and even his place of birth. It's not defense, McCain press secretary Brooke Buchanan said. Instead, the campaign is moving ahead in the face of 'mischaracterizations' of 'issues that are so in the weeds.'"

The New York Times does a story about how McCain hasn't been as principled in some of his positions as he claims. "McCain, who derided his onetime Republican competitor Mitt Romney for his political mutability, has himself meandered over the years from position to position on some topics, particularly as he has tried to court the conservatives who have long distrusted him. His most striking turnaround has been on the Bush tax cuts, which he voted against twice but now wants to make permanent. Mr. McCain has also expressed varying positions on immigration, torture, abortion and Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary."

The AP notes over the weekend, as we have previously, that McCain has been taken out of context on the "100 years" in Iraq comment. "When McCain was asked about Bush's theory that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 50 years, the senator said: 'Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, it's fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.'"

"While Obama's candidacy has often united blacks and whites at the ballot box," the Washington Post reports, "it has driven a wedge through the black political establishment, exposing a rift between a new generation, whose members see their political horizons as limitless, and their predecessors, who have struggled to establish a following outside of heavily African American areas."

"Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones is pushing back hard against the kind of pressure that has come down on Rep. John Lewis (Ga.) and other black Democratic superdelegates who are being pressed to back Obama's candidacy. 'I say shame on anyone who's engaged in that conduct, to put that kind of pressure on John Lewis,' Tubbs Jones said. 'I'm not trying to be a martyr. I think Senator Clinton is the best candidate. And the beauty of the United States of America is you have the right to have your opinion, and I have the right to my opinion."

"City Councilman Joe Cimperman, once a Kucinich admirer, has raised nearly $500,000 and landed high-profile endorsements from the mayor and the city's daily newspaper in a feisty campaign heading into Tuesday's Democratic primary. 'Mr. Kucinich is not a congressman, he's a showman,' said Cimperman, 37, who has belittled Kucinich's Hollywood ties and criticized congressional votes Kucinich missed during his presidential campaigns.
 
"Kucinich, 61, a liberal with a political resume stretching over four decades, sensed early that the Cimperman challenge was real. He abandoned his presidential campaign on Jan. 25, months earlier in the race than he did in 2004 when he also was polling in low one-digit numbers."

From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
HOUSTON, TX -- In the span of 12 hours, he was hobnobbing with Shakira, being blessed by a celebrity pastor, and being hailed by a Hallejulah-crying choir for his days as the "first black president."

Welcome to Bill Clinton's day.

A visibly tired former president, fresh off of a high-profile fundraiser in Toronto last night, still managed to muster a few "Amens" during three church appearances in the Houston area this morning.

Clinton first appeared at the massive Lakewood Church in Houston, one of the nation's largest mega-churches and the home to famed preacher and charisma machine Joel Osteen. The ex-president, accompanied by daughter Chelsea and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, looked impressed at the colossal congregation, which is housed in a former NBA basketball arena. Clinton did not speak, but bobbed his head in time to the soaring chords of the church's 100-person choir. When acknowledged by the superstar pastor, Clinton was received warmly by the eye-popping crowd, over eight thousand strong. "Love ya, Bill!" cried one audience member, moved by a different kind of spirit.

The size of the crowd was much smaller later in the morning, but their enthusiasm may have been even stronger. At Christian Hope Baptist Church, Clinton was cheered by an audience of African-American churchgoers whose gospel tunes were so rousing that more than one singer joyfully collapsed during the warm-up before Clinton entered the room. 

During Clinton's remarks at Christian Hope, he acknowledged the difficult choice faced by Democrats who have long hoped for the chance to vote for either a woman or an African American president. "I don't know why God asked us to make this decision," he chuckled. "It's funny sometimes, there is an old saying, that you gotta be careful what you ask for or somebody might give it to you."

Clinton seemed a bit sluggish this morning after touching down well after 2:00 am last night in Texas. The former president spent his evening in Toronto, Canada, at a glitzy launch of a new philanthropy effort. Tom Cruise, Elton John, and pop star Shakira reportedly attended the top-dollar fundraising event, which Clinton co-hosted with business partner and controversial mining tycoon Frank Giustra. (Giustra was a key character in the New York Times expose of Clinton's latest trip to Kazakhstan.)
 
The late night seemed to wear on the hard-charging Clinton, whose church appearances were among a total of a whopping eight public appearances scheduled for today.

"You have to decide," he told the crowd at Christian Hope, rubbing his eyes with a weary smile. "I've made the best case I can."

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
NELSONVILLE, OH -- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D) of West Virginia introduced Obama at a small gathering of local business leaders here at Hocking College this morning, testifying to his strength on national security and his ability to inspire.

"I've been around a while. I grew up in the '60s; there was a ton of hope. Times were a lot better then. Now the economy is sinking into a very bad situation. You see this everywhere. How come then that I feel more hope and more optimistic and more confident in our future than I ever have before? Because of Barack Obama," Rockefeller, who recently endorsed the Illinois senator, said.

Lending weight to Obama's candidacy from his perch as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rockefeller claimed that no other candidate running for president had better judgment than Obama on national security.

"Not to be obnoxious about it," Rockefeller said, "I know what's going on in every part of the world all the time. It's grim… That's why another reason I have confidence, of all the candidates running, primary or general, there's only one person who really has the capacity as strong and as necessary to make the judgments, nuanced judgments to create a foreign policy that tells you when you are to be strong, military if that comes, but also how to take a situation to break it down and look at it," he said.

Rockefeller's endorsement was first announced this past Thursday, immediately following the release of an ad by the Clinton campaign, which claimed that she was best prepared to handle a global crisis should the phone suddenly ring in the White House at 3:00 am.

Obama, his surrogates, and spokespeople turned the ad into another referendum on the Iraq War, claiming that Clinton had failed her own "red phone moment" by voting to go to war.

Rockefeller did not directly reference that ad, instead testifying to Obama's interest and capacity to handle the issue.

Rockefeller said that Obama was one of the few senators who took the trouble to read intelligence reports in a "leaden room" to fully understand what was going on in the world.

But he also couldn't resist a wisecrack at his colleague's lack of presence in Washington. "I've seen him when he's in the Senate, which hasn't been a lot lately," he said. Obama standing by his side chuckled.

After Rockefeller spoke, Obama spoke about the importance of "green jobs" to help rebuild rural areas like Southeastern Ohio. He took questions from a very friendly audience that spent far more time praising him and his candidacy than challenging him. Displaying his wonkier side, Obama spoke about the importance of carbon sequestration from coal, retrofitting buildings and how trying to stop trade or globalization would be a futile attempt.

"I'm going to keep speaking out against NAFTA and other trade agreements that don't provide reciprocity. But here's the truth: globalization is not going away."

Though he refrained from attacking Clinton for most of the event, he then criticized her for the first time for calling for a moratorium on trade deals. Previously, Obama's criticisms have been focused on how Clinton had praised NAFTA in the past.

"If Senator Clinton talks about a pause in our trade deals, the world will not pause. China's not pausing; India's not pausing. The only way we are going to compete is if our children are better prepared, better equipped," he said.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
WESTERVILLE, OH -- Clinton, who is stumping across Ohio two days before a must-win primary here, continued to drive home her argument that she is better prepared than her rival to deal with crises as president.

"When the cameras are gone and the lights are out, the president of the United States, as I know very well, is in that White House," she today told a group of supporters gathered in a high school gym here. "And, yes, there are advisers. There's all kinds of people who are saying do this and do that. But the president has to decide."

She continued, "When those calls come at 3:00 am, it might be a national security crisis. You know, it could be an economic crisis. You know, the economy's facing some really troubled waters. Think about what could happen if there were unrest in Nigeria, a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, oil would shoot to $150 a barrel."

Clinton needs to win in Ohio to stay in the race, according to many political observers, and she spoke today about the importance of the state, a place where the economy is tops on voters' minds.

"Ohio is once again the center of attention for a reason, because Ohio, as Ted Strickland says everywhere I travel with him, truly does represent America -- the kind of hopes and aspirations, the kind of challenges and opportunities, they're all right here in Ohio," she said. "I can go from one end of this state to another, and I can see the growth and the new jobs in a place like Columbus and then I can see the shuttered steel mills in Youngstown. I can be visiting with laid off workers in Toledo, who are just so worried about what's going to happen next and then I can be down in Cincinnati with financial services and others who are doing the jobs that they hope to attract and keep. It is a picture of America."

The event launched what the campaign is calling a "Solutions for America" caravan of canvassers who aim to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors. It kicked off what it's calling an 88 counties in 88 hours tour on Friday in Ohio to reach out to voters and supporters in every county.

State Director Robby Mook called this a "hotly contested race" and said he wasn't paying much attention to polls, focusing instead on getting out the vote. Mook said absentee and early voting rates had been high, but expressed some concern that bad weather could disproportionately affect the southeastern part of the state, where Clinton has a lot of support.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
PARMA HEIGHTS, OH -- At a town hall last night, Obama revealed that one of his top volunteers in Iowa was gunned down in the Omaha Mall shooting several months ago.
 
John McDonald, 65, was a precinct captain for Obama in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just across the border from Omaha). McDonald was Christmas shopping with his wife when he was gunned down.

Obama revealed the information when answering a question about violent crime and gun control.

"This past Sunday, I had the heartbreaking experience to be at the memorial service of the NIU students, prior to that I had one of my top volunteers in Iowa, was one of the people that was killed in the mall in Nebraska," Obama said.

Obama added, "He was about to get on the elevator with his wife when the young deranged man shot in the head, and he was killed." 

Obama, according to his spokeswoman Jen Psaki, did not know the volunteer. McDonald had spent considerable  time in the campaign's Council Bluffs office and his death affected the organizers there badly.

Obama added that when shootings like these are "occurring every three months," it was indicative of a larger problem. He called for "common sense" gun laws including: stronger background checks to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining guns, said the COPS program, closing the gun show loophole and using new technology to better trace guns used in drug crimes.

He was quick to say that he believed in the 2nd Amendment, but he said the right had to be used responsibly. He compared restrictions on gun ownership to how one curbs free speech, saying yelling "Fire!" in a crowded town hall like this one violated that right.

Shortly after the shootings at Northern Illinois University, Obama had said at a press conference that he also believed that local jurisdictions had the right to place limits on gun ownership and usage, depending on their needs.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
NEW YORK -- A week after a "Saturday Night Live" skit poked fun at a perceived media bias in favor a certain senator from Illinois, Hillary Clinton appeared on the popular NBC comedy show.

The show began with a sketch on the recent MSNBC debate in Cleveland, in which the actors poked fun at Clinton's focus on health care, and the New York senator's character, played by Amy Poehler, took issue with questions to Barack Obama that she felt were softballs, while she was subjected to the third degree.

Clinton then came on afterwards to give an "Editorial Response."

"The scene you just saw was a reenactment, sort of, of last Tuesday's debate and not an endorsement of one candidate over another. I can say this confidently, because when I asked if I could take it as an endorsement, I was told 'Absolutely not.' But I still enjoyed that sketch a great deal, because I simply adore Amy's impression of me," she said, before being interrupted by Poehler, who was dressed in an identical brown suit and mocked her laugh.

Poehler asked the former first lady how the campaign was going. "Oh, the campaign is going very well, very, very well. Why? What have you heard?" Clinton said. "Nevermind, I am just so happy to be back in New York, even for a few hours. Tonight, I just want to relax, have fun, not worry about the campaign."

Poehler then asked, "So no politics?"

"No politics," the senator responded. "But I would like to take this opportunity to say to all Americans, be they from the great state of Ohio or Texas, from Rhode Island or Vermont, Pennsylvania or any of the other states, live from New York it is Saturday night!"

The candidate's comedic turn Saturday night comes just days before crucial primary tests in four states. Many observers, including former President Bill Clinton believe the New York senator must win both Ohio and Texas to stay in the race.  

When Clinton did not appear on the plane earlier in the day to fly from Texas to Ohio with the press, reporters were given no hints as to her actual whereabouts and only found out hours later. The appearance was part of a string of attempts to burnish her pop culture credentials and show the lighter side of a person often described as wonky. The senator plans to appear on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" Monday via satellite and was on "The Late Show with David Letterman" earlier this week.

While people who know Clinton describe her as warm and funny, she has sometimes had problems communicating her softer side to voters. Late in her campaign in Iowa, she launched the "Hillary I know" tour with friends and constituents traveling the state sharing stories about her. Her misty-eyed moment before the New Hampshire primary, moreover, was credited with helping her appeal to women voters and contributing to her surprise victory there.

Incidentally, there was another SNL sketch after the commercial break -- a cartoon that poked fun at Obama's relationship with black activists, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. However, contrary to what the skit suggested, Sharpton hasn't endorsed Obama, and Jackson's support for the Illinois senator has been lukewarm.

From NBC's Mark Murray
Two new polls show that Tuesday's pivotal Clinton-Obama contests in Ohio and Texas are essentially deadlocked, with Obama leading in the Lone Star State by a fingernail and Clinton leading in the Buckeye State by two fingernails.

According to an MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon survey in Texas, Obama is ahead of Clinton, 46%-45%, although that lead is within the poll's 4% margin of error. The subgroups break out in predictable ways: Obama leads among men (54%-37%), those under 50 (56%-36%), African Americans (86%-6%), and independents and Republicans (55%-34%); Clinton leads among women (51%-40%), those over 50 (54%-38%), whites (53%-38%), Hispanics (62%-30%), and Democrats (50%-42%).

Obama wins decisively among those most wanting change (76%-18%), while Clinton wins even more decisively among those who most want experience (93%-3%). Yet they split evenly among those who care most about the issues.

In Ohio, per a new Cleveland Plain Dealer/Mason-Dixon poll, it's Clinton 47%, Obama 43% -- and that, too, is within the survey's 4% margin of error. Also, the subgroups in Ohio mirror those in Texas, with Obama winning among men, African Americans, those under 50, and those wanting change; while Clinton leads among women, whites, those over 50, and those wanting experience.

Both polls were conducted Feb. 27-29 among 625 likely Texas Democratic primary voters and 625 likely Ohio primary voters.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones, NBC's Domenico Montanaro and Mark Murray
DALLAS, Texas -- Clinton continued the same lines of attack she's been using since yesterday, hitting Obama on national security issues. She had a sharper-sounding line as she sought to define the premise of her opponent's candidacy. She gave two reasons she says he uses to show he's qualified to be president.

"My opponent, he basically says there are two reasons why he is qualified to be commander in chief," Clinton told a crowd ousesf about 2,500 to 3,000, which appeared to be the largest gathered since the 12,000-person rally in El Paso the night of the Chesapeake Primaries. "He gave a speech against the Iraq war in 2002, and I give him credit for that. He gave a speech at an anti-war rally. Well, then within two years he had decided that maybe he wasn't sure which way he would have actually voted if he had been a senator and that maybe George Bush wasn't doing such a bad job in Iraq after all.

"And then he often cites on his resume the fact that he is the chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs, which has jurisdiction over NATO, which as you know is our ally in Afghanistan. But he didn't tell you until the debate the other night that he never even held a single substantive hearing to figure out what he could do better."

While the 2002 speech certainly has been a centerpiece of Obama's campaign as part of an argument on "judgment," Obama never said George Bush "wasn't doing such a bad job in Iraq." He also doesn't tout his chairmanship on the European Affairs subcommittee. He does say, though that he is a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In addition, at the debate, Clinton brought up the chairmanship -- not Obama -- and used it to deliver an effective line against him. Obama did attempt to justify his lack of holding hearings after Clinton pointed it out, however, saying that he had only been given the chairmanship 13-months ago -- when he started running for president.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Attempting to change the storyline away from national security and "the red-phone" moment that dominated the news coverage yesterday, Obama introduced a new slogan on the stump: "real change."

Variations on the theme change has been Obama's message and on his banners since Iowa, including: "Stand for change," "Change you can believe in," and "Are you ready for change?"
 
"But I want you to understand what real change is," Obama told the crowd. "Don't be fooled. Real change means saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Real change isn't about fitting the politics of the moment."

He continued with a series of attacks on Clinton's record, including NAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, the vote to go to war in Iraq and the power of lobbyists and special interests. Obama also tried to paint Clinton as a flip flopper, repeatedly telling the crowd she had changed her positions since she started running for president.
 
"Real change isn't calling NAFTA a victory and saying how good it was for America until you decide to run for President, like Senator Clinton did," Obama continued before detailing his own positions, saying that he represented "real change" on the issues.

Presenting himself as consistent on NAFTA, he said, "I won't stand here and tell you that I will stop every job from disappearing because of globalization, but I will tell you that I'll be thinking about workers and not just Wall Street when I put together trade agreements. I will end the tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. That is real change. That's change you can count on, because I've been saying this for four, five, six, seven years. I don't just say this during an election."

Obama has also been complimentary of NAFTA, saying benefitted parts of his home state in Illinois. However, he has also said that the agreement should include labor and environmental protection. Clinton has praised NAFTA in the past, because, like Obama in Illinois, it has helped parts of her state. Both candidates' rhetoric on the issue has heated up since they started campaigning in Ohio, which has lost more than 250,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.

Obama ended by hitting Clinton on the war, claiming that "real change isn't voting for George Bush's war in Iraq and then telling the American people it was actually a vote for more diplomacy when you start running for President."

Criticizing Clinton's explanation of her vote to go to war, Obama shouted out to the crowd with former Sen. Lincoln Chaffee sitting in the front row, "I knew what it was. Lincoln Chaffee knew what it was. It was a vote for war. And if Lincoln Chaffee could stand up against this president, he knew what the vote was. Lincoln opposed this war. Many of you opposed this war. That's why I will bring this war to an end when I am president."

The mention of Chaffee's name appeared to whip the crowd into a frenzy of enthusiasm. Ironic since Rhode Islanders voted Chaffee out of office in 2006, despite his vote against the war. Obama's only point that could be a reference to Clinton's ad from yesterday, when the candidates traded barbs on who was best fit to answer the phone in the White House when it rang at 3 a.m., was to say that he was opposed to "the fever of fear" that employed 9-11 as a "way to scare up votes."

Instead he referred to Clinton's "clouds parting" comment to claim critics were discrediting his message of "hope."

A statement issued by Rhode Island College said the event, with an estimated 5,000 people inside the hall and another 5,000 outside, was the state's largest political event since 1996. Back then a rally for President Bill Clinton drew a crowd of 10,000. Obama was introduced by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who told the crowd the candidate's eloquence would be an effective tool to bring about change when he is president.

Obama is not expected to win this bright blue state where the Clintons are immensely popular. However, Clinton's lead has begun to erode in the state, and the large population of college students may help Obama due to better than expected.

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- No crowd is ever the same. For every spirited rally Bill Clinton holds there is the occasional restrained gathering. Bill Clinton faced one such crowd this morning as he rounded out a three-day trip to the Buckeye State. But he used the silence to illustrate a point.

"See how quiet you are?" Clinton asked voters at the Kirtland High School gym this morning. "Now think about this -- why are you quiet? Cause you know this is a big election, and you really care don't you? You care."

He continued on to say that it is the seriousness with which voters are taking this primary contest that has made the candidates better. "Every four years the American people sing a different song, with their hopes and their dreams and their fears and their anxieties, and all the terrible things and all the wonderful things that they want," he said. "You can hear it all, and it is the most beautiful, awesome thing."

And he said his wife's backers, in particular, have responded strongly. "When Hillary supporters realized that Senator Obama was going to outspend her three or four to one we had this amazing thing, I never thought I would see it. She got $10 million on the Internet in three days, from little-bitty supporters, people didn't have any money."

This particular audience had waited nearly two hours for the president to appear on stage. He apologized when he arrived, saying his previous day ended at 2:45 am.

The former president faced a much livelier crowd in Lakewood near Cleveland, where about 800 packed into the high school gym. And yet Clinton did strike a sober note as he began his standard line about America needing a president who would not be consumed by the trappings of the office.

"You have to have somebody that won't forget the look in your eyes, and she never will," he said. "In the middle of a campaign that might decide her fate in Texas, she went to a funeral yesterday for a motorcycle policeman who was tragically killed escorting her."

The Lakewood event was the last of nine Clinton has held over 40 hours in the Buckeye State. He heads to Toronto tonight for an event for his foundation, before returning to the campaign trail in Texas on Sunday.

From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger
LAREDO, Texas -- Huckabee toured the Mexican border Saturday and stressed his commitment to preventing illegal immigration, while choosing against criticizing McCain.

Huckabee -- joined by Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jim Gilchrist, founder and president of the Minutemen Project and Chuck Norris – first was briefed at the Laredo office of Customs and Border Protection. He viewed the command center, where operators scan mounted video cameras, looking for Mexicans seeking to cross the border. He also saw a wide array of weapons and equipment the patrolmen use, including hovercraft.

He then toured a potential border crossing, walking through the woods to the edge of the Rio Grande. Speaking after the tour, Huckabee demurred when asked if McCain was soft on immigration.

"I'm not going to characterize his position because I think that's not really a healthy thing for me to get into," he said. "I still had rather have Sen. McCain than I had Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton as president."

Huckabee continued to stress the need for increased border protection and expressed support for current plans to prosecute all illegal border crossers. He also backed civilian border-protection groups, saying they were necessary because of deficient federal resources for protecting the border.

Huckabee was also asked about some who misconstrued his comments Friday about McCain roping cattle. After trying to lasso a bale of hay in Fort Worth, Huckabee suggested McCain couldn't do better. Some believed his comments were a jab at McCain's Vietnam War injuries, but Huckabee said that wasn't the case.

"Oh nonsense," he said, chuckling. "Good chance after my performance yesterday he could do it better. He couldn't do it any worse, that's for sure."

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
IN THE SKY OVER TEXAS, MARCH 1 -- Clinton feels good about her prospects in Texas despite the state's intricate process for awarding delegates based on both primary and caucus results.

"We feel really good about it. We are training people," she told reporters on her campaign plane Saturday afternoon. "We are recruiting precinct captains. We feel good about it."

"I feel good about our campaigns and about what people are focusing on now. The kind of questions that are being asked, but obviously people have to be given a chance to vote and that hasn't happened yet."

The New York senator said she had been focusing on Texas since last spring as part of a strategy of winning the big states. This was an interesting comment because a few weeks ago, she told reporters that grown men were crying over trying to figure out the Texas process. When reminded about those comments, she said they had known about the process, but that the primary is what most people paid attention to. (Note: In a Feb. 18 press conference on the plane before taking off from Madison, Wis., Clinton was asked to explain to the press how Texas' delegate allocation worked. Her response: "I have no idea. I mean, I've got people trying to understand it as we speak...Grown men are crying over trying to understand it," she joked. "I had no idea how bizarre it was until, you know, we had to start figuring it out.")

Polls show the race is tight in Texas and Ohio. Clinton would not comment on the "buyer's remorse" argument her camp put forward in a conference call Friday. Top aides said any loss by Obama on Tuesday would be a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the candidate, despite his having won 11 contests in a row.

She declined to answer whether she needs victories in both Ohio and Texas, despite the fact that her husband and others have said she has to win both to stay in the race

Clinton said she would continue to stress national security Obama, calling it a "defining issue" in the election with McCain as the Republican nominee and issuing a challenge a day after a fierce back and forth over a Clinton ad called "Children" that Obama's camp called an attempt to appeal to people's fears.

"If Sen. Obama is unwilling to engage me over national security, how is he going to engage Sen. McCain?" she said, before going on to highlight the support she'd gotten from members of the military.  

Clinton's ad asks people to ask themselves who they would want answering the phone at 3 am in the White House in the event of a crisis, implying her Democratic rival wasn't up to the task. She was asked when she had had that "red phone" experience.

"I was involved in a lot of the decisions that were made," Clinton said, "but again you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. No one who hasn't been president has ever done that, so that's not the question.

"The question is what have you done over the course of a lifetime to equip you for that moment, and I think you'll be able to imagine many things Sen. McCain will be able to say. He's never been the president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Sen. Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."

When asked why she should be trusted to run the White House after suffering a series of problems during her campaign, like running out of money and replacing top staffers, Clinton said McCain had faced challenges too, that campaigns were organic and evolving and that she was very proud of her campaign.

In response to reports the Obama camp played down his criticism of NAFTA with Canadian officals, she called it "disturbing that he would say one thing in Ohio and then have his camp send a private signal to a foreign government, which is representing exactly the opposite of what he's been saying in Ohio" and called it part of a pattern that deserved closer examination.

The senator reiterated her willingness to opt out of NAFTA if Canada and Mexico won't renegotiate. It's a position that has caused some alarm among economists and some Democrats who argue the opt out threat is bad for America's reputation in the world and say the trade agreement has been good for the American economy.

*** UPDATE *** The Clinton campaign is sending this video around. Question: Might the RNC use this if Obama becomes the nominee?

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Actresses Melanie Griffith and Eva Longoria Parker endorsed Hillary Clinton, the campaign touted in an e-mail to the press. They will appear with the candidate during her televised town hall on a Texas sports channel, which will also be livestreamed on Clinton's Web site. Longoria was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is married to San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker.

Neither Griffith nor Longoria is a superdelegate -- in case anyone was wondering...

*** UPDATE *** On a more serious note, the campaign just announced El Paso Mayor John Cook has endorsed Clinton. (Cook is also not a superdelegate.)

"I'm endorsing Hillary Clinton because only she has the experience we need to bring real change in this country," Cook said in a statement released by the campaign. "Hillary Clinton has a long history in our state: Hillary knows Texas and understands the challenges border communities like ours face. I know she will make an outstanding President. Since Hillary, President Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton have each visited El Paso and have really taken the time to listen to us, I am thrilled to give Hillary a key to our city."

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH -- There is one career politician in this race. And according to Bill Clinton, it's Barack Obama.
 
Rounding out a long day of campaigning across Northern Ohio on Friday, the former president told audiences in small college gyms that he's still adjusting to life as a candidate's surrogate rather than as the candidate. "I always have a little trepidation at these events, but I love doing this because Hillary campaigned for me from 1974 until I left the White House," he told an audience in Wooster. "She never ran for public office until 2000, so as you can see I'm still a few years behind I'm trying to make up."
 
At his fifth and final event in New Philadelphia, Clinton broke away from the podium and was a bit more candid on the subject. "She never held any elected office, until she was elected to the senate in New York in 2000," he said. "She was a public servant all her life, but has a very unusual life and I think one of the most interesting misconceptions that is put out there is that somehow she is typical politician and her opponent, who's been in a lot more elections, is different. She is a lifetime public servant, but a recent elected official, and a darn good one." 
 
Obama has run in six elections in the past 12 years, including his state senate days and a run for congress against Bobby Rush. This is Clinton's third race, including her two senate wins.

Former Ohio Sen. John Glenn and Gov. Ted Strickland joined Clinton as he campaigned at smaller venues in more rural areas. "I want Hillary to go to Cleveland, Columbus, and all your other big cities and be on the TV and get her name and message out to the largest number of people," he said in New Philadelphia. "But I know that this state is won or lost in the heartland of Ohio in places like this, and I plan to be here."

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
SAN ANTONIO, TX, March 1 -- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros headed a meeting with Hillary Clinton supporters here Saturday morning to talk about the caucus process. He said believed Clinton would win the popular vote and wanted to make sure she also performed well in the caucuses, which he called an intricate system and said were not the ideal way to select delegates. 

"I believe Texas is going for Hillary Clinton on election day," Cisneros told an audience of about 200 gathered in a high school auditorium. "But the bottom line is we cannot throw away our hard work and our win by not being there at the caucuses."

Clinton revved up the enthusiastic crowd with a short speech.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- Obama took a detour from the standard rally or economic roundtable Friday afternoon, to hold a meeting with Latino religious leaders and making a spur of the moment stop at the U.S.-Mexico border.

At a small, invitation-only event at the University of Texas-Brownsville with about 150 evangelical and Catholic ministers, Obama spoke of his own conversion to Christianity as a young man working with churches on the South Side of Chicago in his 20s. As a child, Obama grew up in a secular household, as the New York Times noted in April 2007: "The grandparents who helped raise Mr. Obama were nonpracticing Baptists and Methodists. His mother was an anthropologist who collected religious texts the way others picked up tribal masks, teaching her children the inspirational power of the common narratives and heroes." Obama did not grow up with his Kenyan father, whose family was Muslim.

Obama tied the message of his campaign to a religious message, telling the story of Jeremiah 29 from the bible. "God has a plan for his people," Obama said. "That was the truth Jeremiah grasped -- the creed that brought comfort to the exiles -- that faith is not just a pathway to personal redemption, but a force that can bind us together and lift us up as a community."

The event began and ended with a prayer and the majority of questions focused on how Obama would handle immigration. Obama said the issue of immigration, like the one of poverty, was a matter of "conscience" and should be handled as such. He also discussed the importance of foreign investment and said that the U.S. should do more to help the poor in Mexico as a way to deter immigration.

The Obama campaign has held similar faith forums like these across the country, and has effectively tapped into the faith vote. A recent email by his religious director, Joshua DuBois, announced that Obama had won the faith vote overwhelmingly in every primary  and caucus thus far.

"Beyond any policy or issue, people are motivated by their faith," DuBois said and added that it had allowed Latinos to build a personal connection with Obama. Faith outreach is an innovative way for the campaign to make inroads among Latinos, who already have a long and affectionate relationship with Senator Hillary Clinton.

After the event, Obama decided on his own that he wanted to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, a part of which actually runs through the campus of Brownsville, which sits on the banks of the Rio Grande. The Department of Homeland Security at one point, had threatened to run the border fence through the grounds of the campus itself.

The campaign hastily arranged a small pool of reporters to go with him and drove him to the border line, a grassy area with a ditch marking the U.S.-Mexico line. Obama stood on the U.S. side, looked out toward Mexico and joked, "I've been to Mexico before in college. But I can't talk about that," he said laughing.

After visiting the border he stopped at a Sombrero festival where he greeted Latino voters, took a picture with a Mariachi singer and ate a taco. On the plane, talking about the event, Obama commented on how complex of an issue immigration was, saying that the way even Texans and Arizonans felt about immigration and border security differed. 

Asked if his Spanish was getting better, he said his Spanish was fine, it was just that he only knew 15 words. "But I speak Indonesian, you know for the vast Indonesian population in this country," he added with a smile.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
While Hillary Clinton accuses Obama of being "missing in action," here's your Saturday video with Jack Nicholson wondering if we can handle the truth. Where does he find the time?

[YouTube:6mOa3sXjqE4]

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Clinton responded to Obama's response ad to Clinton's 3 a.m. ad.

"Now my opponent has just put up an ad touting his policy about Afghanistan," Clinton said, "but I have just one question. He was given an important responsibility in the Senate to chair the committee that had responsibility for NATO, which is our ally in Afghanistan. But as you heard him in the last debate, he didn't hold one substantive meeting to try to figure out what else we needed to be doing to win in Afghanistan, to get NATO more involved, because as he said, he was too busy running for president."
 
Obama's ad reads in part: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone ringing in the White House. Something's happening in the world. When that call gets answered, shouldn't the president be the one -- the only one -- who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start… Who understood the REAL threat to America was al Qaeda, in Afghanistan, not Iraq."