MILWAUKEE — Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton traded fresh attacks and touted their economic leadership Saturday as they took their Democratic presidential duel to Wisconsin.
Clinton announced she would cut her campaign schedule in Wisconsin by a day and leave Monday, raising questions about her confidence in Tuesday's primary.
Her husband, former President Clinton, has been in the state and her daughter, Chelsea, will stay on to campaign.
"We're going to be here through Monday, and given the press of all the events that are going on -- Chelsea will be back in the state, Bill obviously was here. We have great surrogates," Clinton told reporters on a stop at a bratwurst restaurant in Kenosha.
Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, has beaten Clinton in the last eight contests and gained the upper hand in their battle to become the party's nominee.
Obama has spent four days in Wisconsin since his last round of victories Tuesday, and he has a slight lead in state opinion polls. Clinton has focused on March 4 primaries in Ohio and Texas, counting on victories there to revive her campaign.
Clinton kept up her criticism of Obama for refusing to debate her before the Wisconsin vote. She aired two ads last week criticizing him on the issue.
"There are real differences here that we deserve to explore, and the people of Wisconsin deserve to have answers to their questions," the New York senator said.
Obama ran an ad responding to the attacks.
"After 18 debates, with two more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics," an announcer says in Obama's ad.
Obama rejected her criticism that he was all talk and no action, and that he lacked her substance and experience.
"The question is not who has got the policies," Obama said at a rally in Eau Claire. "The question is who can get them done, who can bring people together."
Obama and Clinton are scheduled to debate Thursday in Texas, and the following week in Ohio.
Democrats in Hawaii also vote Tuesday, and Obama, who was born in the state, is expected to win there. Wisconsin and Hawaii have a combined 94 delegates.
Both candidates have been focusing on the economy. Ohio and Wisconsin are swing states with economic problems and large populations of blue-collar Democrats, a key part of Clinton's constituency.
