U.S. candidates make final push before Super Tuesday

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Only a few contenders still stay one month after the presidential race kicked out, and are facing even more fierce competition on Feb. 5, the Super Tuesday voting in 24 states, the biggest single day of voting ever in a U.S. presidential nominating race.

Several candidates ¢w including Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain ¢w focused their time on the delegate-rich Northeast. But the tightening race in the biggest prize of all, California, was underscored when Mitt Romney and McCain both made late changes to their schedules to add 11th-hour visits there.

Monday's campaigning before Feb. 5 showed how the dynamic of the race had shifted in the last month. Clinton, who was long considered the Democratic favorite, found herself locked in a series of two-candidate races in several states with Obama.

On the Republican side, which only weeks ago had seemed wide open, McCain sought to ride his recent victories and rising poll numbers to the nomination, while Romney sought to win enough delegates to keep his campaign alive.

Romney, former Massachusetts governor, sought to stir discontent among conservatives who are skeptical about Arizona Sen. McCain's record of having voted against President George W. Bush's tax cuts and his moderate views on illegal immigration.

"A lot of people said it is going to be a very easy race for Senator McCain. But across the country conservatives have come together and said, 'You know what, we don't want Senator McCain. We want a conservative to be in the White House'," Romney told supporters in Nashville.

McCain ripped Romney at a campaign rally in Hamilton, New Jersey, saying Romney presided over a "big government, mandated health care plan" as governor of Massachusetts.

McCain said he has long been in favor of cutting federal spending and is a strong proponent of facing down the challenge of Islamic extremism -- positions he said are at the heart of conservatism.

"So I'm proud of my record in the Senate as a staunch conservative," McCain said.

On a visit to Yale University in Connecticut, Clinton's eyes glistened during an introduction recalling her law school days there. It was an echo of her emotional display before the New Hampshire primary, credited with helping turn the tide for her eventual victory in the state.

"Well I said I wouldn't tear up," the New York senator said. "Already we're not exactly on the path."

Obama, an Illinois senator, campaigned in New Jersey and Connecticut ahead of Super Tuesday.

"We cannot wait to bring change to America," Obama said in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where he was joined by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy, his niece and daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy.

(Agencies)