With California playing a meaningful role in the presidential race for the first time in decades, all three major Democratic candidates hit the campaign trail here Thursday, with talk of pocketbook issues in the face of a weakening economy.
As the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 300 points, Hillary Rodham Clinton laid out a plan to help struggling communities, Barack Obama spoke of revitalizing the economy and John Edwards condemned cuts to the California budget.
All three were gambling that they could take a break from campaigning in Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday, to raise money, talk to voters and launch ads in preparation for the Feb. 5 primary here.
In addition, Clinton and Obama reached out to their chief rivals' base of support, with the New York senator wooing African Americans in Compton and the senator from Illinois courting female voters in San Francisco's Mission District.
Clinton told a receptive audience at the Citizens of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Compton that she would take steps to retrain workers for jobs developing new energy sources. She also advocated a 90-day freeze on housing foreclosures, counseling for people facing foreclosure and an expansion of unemployment insurance.
"In California alone, 95,000 homes are in foreclosure. Many families are struggling, and many of those whose American dreams are being lost are the hardest-working people in California," she said.
Although she did not mention Obama by name, she took a veiled swipe at the man she charges is better at talk than action: "As the scripture reminds us, we cannot be just hearers of the word, we must be doers."
Clinton launched her first California ad on Thursday, a 30-second television spot -- set to air in several cities -- that promises to "bring your voice" to the White House.
Obama surrounded himself with a panel of single mothers at the Women's Building in San Francisco, where he commiserated about how hard it is to balance work and family and make ends meet "for so many Americans, but particularly for working women in this country."
He asked the four women -- one holding her 6-week-old son -- if they were covered for healthcare and whether their children's fathers paid child support. He inquired about mortgage payments and child care.
He confessed: "Although I like to think about myself as an enlightened male, the fact of the matter is that . . . my wife, Michelle, had to bear the burden, for example, of the baby-sitter getting sick."
