WASHINGTON - Anti-war Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, a strong backer of the Iraq conflict, were reaching out to veterans on Monday, the country’s Memorial Day holiday, as the presidential candidates inched closer to a likely faceoff in the November general election.
Obama’s longshot rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, continued to campaign Monday in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Caribbean territory’s primary next week is one of just three left as the intense battle for the Democratic race begun in January winds down.

On Sunday, Obama struck a conciliatory note with McCain, whom he had been hammering for days, and urged unity in service of a greater good in a speech to university graduates.

Obama was filling in for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week and had planned to deliver the graduation address at Wesleyan University. Kennedy has endorsed Obama over Clinton and has campaigned for him.

“We may disagree as Americans on certain issues and positions, but I believe we can be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency, and I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready and eager and up to the challenge,” Obama told the graduating class of 2008.

Obama spent much of the week criticizing McCain, the Republican presumptive nominee, for opposing a college aid bill for military veterans, part of a strategy to link the conservative Republican to the deeply unpopular Bush administration. But he stepped back from the topic ahead of the Memorial Day holiday honoring fallen U.S. servicemen and women.

On Monday, Obama was holding a town hall meeting with veterans in Las Cruces, New Mexico. McCain visiting a memorial for veterans, also in New Mexico.

Over the weekend, McCain turned his attention to the search for a vice presidential running mate. He was hosting at least three potential running mates at his home in Sedona, Arizona — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and his former key rival, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Clinton, meanwhile, was in Puerto Rico, where she hopes for a big primary victory June 1, Clinton told churchgoers that faith has sustained her through her arduous and faltering duel with the ascendant Obama.

“If I had listened to those who had been talking over the last several months we would not be having this campaign in Puerto Rico today,” she said, alluding to calls during the past few months for her to drop out of the race and support Obama.

Clinton is trailing Obama and has almost no chances of getting the Democratic nomination. Some prominent Democrats have been calling for her to step down, fearing that a protracted nomination battle might ruin the party’s chances in November.

The latest to do so was former President Jimmy Carter, who said Sunday during an interview with Sky News in London that Clinton should abandon her battle by early June.

But the former first lady spoke of her determination to stay in the race despite trailing Obama, who picked up three more superdelegates in Hawaii on Sunday, giving him a total of 1,977 delegates, just 49 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. Clinton has 1,779.

After Puerto Rico, there are just two primaries left: Montana and South Dakota on June 3.

Puerto Rico has 55 delegates. Clinton is expected to win there, thanks partly to her ties to the large Puerto Rican community in her home state of New York.

Meanwhile, a third party on Sunday officially chose a former Republican congressman to be its candidate. Former Rep. Bob Barr will run on the Libertarian Party ticket in November. A third-party candidate has not won the presidency in the country’s modern history, but they have sometimes siphoned off voters from one of the two main party candidates.

[Source:Yahoo News]