By Caren Bohan
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Sen. Hillary Clinton sharpened herattack on Friday against rival Barack Obama before new contestsfor the Democratic presidential nomination, casting herself asa champion of the U.S. middle class and saying voters faced achoice between "speeches and solutions."
Clinton, under pressure to slow Obama's momentum aftereight consecutive losses, honed her economic message to appealto middle- and lower-income voters before the next round ofDemocratic contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday andTexas and Ohio on March 4.
"I believe with all my heart that the middle class is theguarantor of the American dream and it is the economic backboneof our country," Clinton said as she visited a popularCincinnati restaurant, Skyline Chili, for an economicround-table. "It is time we had a president who was a fighter,a doer and a champion for the American middle class."
"I am a candidate of, from and for the middle class ofAmerica," added Clinton, who grew up in a comfortablemiddle-class suburb of Chicago, then went on to attendWellesley College and Yale Law School. She often talks at hercampaign events about how she relied on government loans tohelp fund her education.
The New York senator stressed her proposals for a 90-daymoratorium on home foreclosures and a cap on credit cardinterest rates, and the elimination of tax breaks for companiesthat export jobs overseas. She has also vowed to work toeliminate tax breaks that let Wall Street money managers paylower tax rates.
"We are going to change the tax code. It is wrong that aninvestment money manager on Wall Street making $50 million(25.5 million pounds) a year gets a lower tax rate than ateacher, a nurse, a truck driver, an auto worker making $50,000a year," Clinton said.
The former first lady, who would be the first female U.S.president, tried to use Obama's skill as a public speakeragainst him, again accusing him of offering rhetoric ratherthan substance.
"This primary election offers a very big choice to thevoters of Ohio," she said. "You can choose speeches orsolutions."
Obama, campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a newpoll showed him with a 5-point lead over Clinton, rejected hercriticism and accused her of being part of the problem.
'GAMESMANSHIP'
"I understand Senator Clinton periodically when she isfeeling down launches attacks as a way of trying to boost herappeal. But I think this kind of gamesmanship is not what theAmerican people are looking for," the Illinois senator said.
"In this campaign, she's taken nearly double the amount ofmoney from lobbyists than any Democrat or Republican runningfor president," he added. "That's not being a part of thesolutions business. That's being a part of business-as-usual inWashington."
Speaking a day after a student went on a shooting rampageat a university in his home state, killing himself and fiveothers, Obama said the United States had to get a handle on gunviolence.
"I believe that the Second Amendment means something," hesaid, referring to the section of the U.S. Constitution thataddresses the right to gun ownership. "There is an individualright to bear arms, but it's subject to common-senseregulation."
Clinton, commenting on the shooting, told workers at aplant in Akron, Ohio, that "while safeguarding and respectingour Second Amendment rights, we've got to figure out how tokeep guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, gangmembers and people with mental health problems."
Obama scored another big endorsement, winning the supportof the 1.9 million-member Service Employees InternationalUnion, whose president, Andy Stern, said the executive boardhad overwhelmingly favoured the Illinois senator.
"We do think he has the experience and the vision we needin our next president," Stern said.
Republican front-runner John McCain also scored a bigendorsement -- that of former President George H.W. Bush, thefather of the current president. McCain told a news conferencehe would travel to Houston on Monday to meet with the elderBush.
McCain is almost certain to be the Republican presidentialnominee for the November general election after defeating hismain rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and winninghis endorsement. McCain's nearest rival is former Arkansas Gov.Mike Huckabee, who is running a distant second.
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and John Whitesidesin Wisconsin; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by PeterCooney)
