Candidates clash over plan to lift gas tax for summer

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton touted opposing views Thursday on whether to suspend the federal gas tax this summer, as controversy about Obama's former pastor finally took a back seat to pocketbook issues.

In addition, with key contests in Indiana and North Carolina just five days away, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and party superdelegate switched his endorsement from Clinton to Obama.

Joe Andrew said he concluded that staying with Clinton would only delay the nomination and help Republican John McCain.

But new polling showed that Clinton has effectively erased Obama's lead nationally and that Obama's unfavorable ratings had climbed in recent weeks – even as the prolonged Democratic contest also damaged Clinton's image.

A survey of Democratic voters released Thursday by the non-partisan Pew Research Center showed Obama's lead over Clinton at a bare 47 percent to 45 percent, down from 49 to 39 a month ago. The survey was conducted April 23-27, just prior to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racially divisive comments Monday at the National Press Club, and Oba-ma's denunciation of Wright the day after.

Obama and Clinton, both campaigning Thursday in Indiana, talked about the challenges of paying for health care and their commitment to ending the war and told family stories.

But the gas-tax issue gave the rivals the easiest way to differentiate themselves and seek political advantage.

Clinton favors suspending the gasoline tax this summer. She'd tax oil companies to make up the lost revenue. That allows her to position herself as an advocate of the working class who can stake out a middle ground between Obama, who opposes a tax suspension as a feeble gesture likely to fail, and McCain, who favors one without the offsetting tax.

"I sometimes feel like the Goldilocks of this campaign – not too much, not too little, but just right," she told voters in Brownsburg. "When you go to the gas pump, when you go to the supermarket, you want a president who has a feel for the economy."

Obama argued that a gas-tax suspension is a gimmick that distracts from the need to conserve. Most economists agree.

He compared the gas-tax suspension to the Medicare prescription drug plan or the "Mission Accomplished" slogan after the invasion of Iraq five years ago.

"For us to pretend we're solving the problem by giving people 30 cents a day" in estimated cost savings, "that's it? That's our plan?" he asked a group of senior citizens in Columbia City. "I guess Senator Clinton thought it was going to poll well."

Asked if the Clinton plan would increase consumption, contradicting her stand in favor of boosting fuel conservation, Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said flatly, "no." Most economists say it would boost gasoline consumption.

"People are hurting at the pump," Elleithee said. "They need to get to work. They need to take their children to day care."

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