(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-03 15:28

Sen. John McCain barnstormed through a skeptical South on Saturday, campaigning for a Super Tuesday knockout in the Republican presidential race. Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton worked the West on the final weekend before primaries and caucuses in more than 20 states.

Democrat Barack Obama chased Hillary Clinton on a frenzied final weekend of all-out campaigning before 24-state "Super Tuesday," the biggest one-day White House nominating clash in history. [Agencies]

"I assume that I will get the nomination of the party," McCain told reporters, the front-runner so confident that he decided to challenge rival Mitt Romney in his home state of Massachusetts.

Romney, on the other hand, celebrated a caucus victory in Maine and told reporters he plans to do well Tuesday, "planning on getting the kind of delegates and support that shows that my effort is succeeding, and taking that across the nation. ... I am encouraged by the support which I'm seeing grow for me."

Clinton stressed pocketbook issues, the home mortgage crisis in a discussion with voters in a working class neighborhood, and health care at a noisy rally in California attended by former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson. "This is a cause that is the central passion of my public life," she said, and jabbed at Obama on the issue.

"My opponent will not commit to universal health care. I do not believe we should nominate any Democrat who will not stand here proudly today and commit to universal health care," she said in the continuation of a monthslong debate over which candidate's plan would result in wider coverage among the millions who now lack it.

Obama stopped in Idaho, where caucuses offer a mere 18 delegates on Tuesday, and he worked to reassure Westerners on two fronts.

"I've been going to the same church for more than 20 years, praising Jesus," he told an audience in Boise, warning his listeners not to believe e-mails that falsely say he is a Muslim.

In a region of the country where hunting is a way of life, he also said he has "no intention of taking away folks' guns." The Illinois senator did not mention his support for gun control legislation.

The two remaining Democratic rivals compete in primaries in 15 states as well as caucuses in seven more plus American Samoa on Tuesday, the busiest day of this or any other nominating campaign. A total of 1,681 delegates is at stake, including 370 in California alone, and the two campaigns have said they do not expect either side to emerge with a lock on the nomination.

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