Today on the presidential campaign trail

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - IN THE HEADLINES

Ex-rivals Obama, Clinton appear together in call for Democratic unity during fall election ... McCain talks trade, technological innovation with auto workers in struggling Ohio area ... McCain blasts Obama over criticism his Supreme Court would roll back women's rights gains ... Democratic delegate who said she'd vote for McCain tries to keep convention credentials ...

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Obama, Clinton appeal together for Dem unity

UNITY, N.H. (AP) — Rivals turned allies, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton made a display of unity Friday in a hamlet named for it, their first joint public appearance since the divisive Democratic primary race ended.

"To anyone who voted for me and is now considering not voting or voting for Sen. (John) McCain, I strongly urge you to reconsider," said Clinton, the loser in a marathon Democratic nomination fight, as she implored her supporters to join with Obama's "to create an unstoppable force for change we can all believe in."

In turn, Obama praised both Clinton and her husband, former President Clinton, as allies and pillars of the Democratic Party. "We need them. We need them badly," Obama said. "Not just my campaign, but the American people need their service and their vision and their wisdom in the months and years to come because that's how we're going to bring about unity in the Democratic Party. And that's how we're going to bring about unity in America."

Moments earlier, the two snaked their way through some 6,000 people who gathered in a wide-open field and overflowed some bleacher seats in this town of 1,700.

Friday's joint appearance capped a turbulent Democratic primary season and tense post-race transition as the two went from foes to friends — at least publicly.

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McCain talks trade, innovation with auto workers

LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Republican John McCain on Friday told Ohio autoworkers in an economically depressed area that he supports free-trade agreements that many of them feel cost jobs. He also said he backed government investment to help produce the electric cars of the future.

His confession and commitment followed a tour of a General Motors Corp. factory that produces the gas-thrifty Chevrolet Cobalt.

GM has also announced plans to build in 2010 the Chevrolet Volt, a vehicle that will travel 40 miles by battery power but have a seven-gallon gas tank extending its range to 140 miles.

McCain praised both developments as he also made the pitch for an energy strategy that calls for producing more oil, developing a revolutionary automotive battery pack and conserving energy in the government's office buildings and federal auto fleet.

"We must develop vehicles such as are being developed here," McCain told employees attending a town-hall meeting. "We can lead again in the automotive industry and that can lead to thousands of jobs."

The Mahoning Valley is a Democratic stronghold that blames its economic woes on the kind of free-trade policies that McCain supports. The region lost 16,600 jobs from 2000 through 2007, almost all of them in the manufacturing sector.

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McCain blasts Obama for women's rights criticism

LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — John McCain chastised Barack Obama and called for face-to-face town-hall meetings after being asked about a report that his rival claimed that if McCain is elected president, he will appoint a Supreme Court that rolls back gains in women's rights over the past 50 years.

"I respect Sen. Obama and I admire his success, and I will conduct a respectful campaign," McCain said Friday after touring a General Motors factory here. "That kind of a statement or allegation is not worthy of Sen. Obama or worthy of the debate that the American people want and deserve."

Reiterating his call for joint town-hall meetings, McCain added: "If Sen. Obama wants to make a statement like that while we're both on stage or before a group of Americans, then I will be glad to respond to him. I think my record speaks clearly for itself."

The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported Thursday that Obama made the comment last week during a private meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

An Obama spokesman had no immediate comment on the report.

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Delegate in trouble over McCain remark

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hopes to fight off an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to take away her credentials because of her past statement that she would vote for John McCain if Clinton wasn't the nominee.

"Keeping national delegate status is very important to me," Debra Bartoshevich said Thursday. "I believe that Hillary is the better candidate of all of them."

She declined to comment on her previous comment, quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that she would vote for the Republican McCain in November if the Democratic Party nominated Barack Obama for president.

Wisconsin Democratic party chairman Joe Wineke said Friday he's confident Bartoshevich won't be at the national convention. Wineke said it's clear Bartoshevich violated party rules by failing to honor a pledge of intent to vote for the party's presidential ticket in the fall.

Wineke added that Bartoshevich would not have been chosen to be a delegate if people had known beforehand that she would vote for McCain if Obama were nominated.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama joined Hillary Rodham Clinton for a rally in Unity, N.H.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain held a town hall-style meeting at a General Motors Corp. plant in Warren, Ohio.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"In the end, Sen. McCain and President Bush are like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to a whole lot of change." — Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at her first joint public appearance with fellow Democrat Barack Obama at a rally in Unity, N.H.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

An AP-Yahoo News poll found 53 percent of the Democrats who favored Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidential nomination two months ago now back Barack Obama. In April, only 40 percent of Clinton supporters said they would back Obama over Republican John McCain.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080627/ap_on_el_pr/2008_race_rundown [link]