US campaign frenzy in countdown to Super Tuesday

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, White House hopefuls launched a frantic blitz with the stakes enormous heading into "Super Tuesday" and the home stretch of the costliest and longest US election campaign in history.

Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were criss-crossing the country over the weekend, touring places from California to New York and points in between ahead of Tuesday's primaries in nearly two dozen states.

"No matter what happens, I want everyone of you with a child or a grandchild to look into the eyes of that precious child and say yes, you can be whatever you want to be in America," Clinton told exuberant supporters here late Friday. A new national poll out Friday showed Obama gaining on the New York senator in the historic 2008 White House race as he bids to be the country's first black president.

According to the Gallup poll, the Illinois senator was trailing by just three percentage points with 41 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Clinton, who is also on a historic quest to be the first woman president.

The figures, which were within the poll's three-point margin of error, suggested Obama was mopping up spare votes after former senator John Edwards quit the race.

(AFP)