BLUE BELL, PA. — From Pittsburgh in the west to Philadelphia in the southeast, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama scoured the Keystone State for support Monday on the eve of the costliest and most consequential Pennsylvania primary in a generation.
After days of flogging each other on the airwaves, the two Democratic senators toned down the harsh language that they employed in their weekend appearances, ending the race on a comparatively high note.
Clinton talked up her years in public life -- and drew an implicit contrast with Obama -- telling a crowd of several hundred supporters in Pittsburgh, "One of the best ways to know what someone will do is to look and see what they have done."
Obama scarcely mentioned Clinton in a town-hall-style meeting in Blue Bell, a Montgomery County suburb of Philadelphia. Instead he laid out his White House agenda, which would begin with a move to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. But later, in a rally outside Pittsburgh, he faulted Clinton for airing TV ads suggesting that he was not ready to be president.
Today's vote ends a six-week campaign lull, the longest break in balloting since the presidential candidates rang in the New Year with the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
The contest has lasted much longer than expected, giving Pennsylvania a prominence the state has not enjoyed since 1976, when former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter beat Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington to essentially seal the Democratic nomination.
The results today are likely to be less decisive, even though the candidates shattered spending records, with more than $12 million going into TV advertising alone.
Barring an Obama upset victory -- which could produce enormous pressure on Clinton to stand aside -- the biggest question is how close the two will finish and whether enough doubts are raised about Obama's electability to sustain Clinton's comeback hopes. She trails Obama in fundraising, pledged delegates and the popular vote, but has pressed the case that she can run stronger than her rival in key battleground states -- such as Pennsylvania -- that Democrats must carry to win in the fall.
Clinton began a long day of campaigning in Scranton, an old industrial town in northeastern Pennsylvania, where the New York senator has appeared repeatedly to highlight her family's roots. Her father was born in Scranton, and a young Hillary Rodham spent summers nearby.
