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Clinton and Obama campaigning here today

High on the list of things you're probably not going to want to discuss over family dinner this holiday week would be religion, race, or the war in Iraq.

High on the list of things you're probably not going to want to discuss over family dinner this holiday week would be religion, race, or the war in Iraq.

But both major Democratic candidates - Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - will be in Philadelphia today, and they plan to talk about exactly that.

Indeed, this could be a make-or-break morning for Obama, who is leading in the delegate count in the neck-and-neck Democratic primary race but has been roiled in recent days by controversy over the outspoken views of his pastor, Philadelphia native Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.

At 10:15 a.m., the Illinois senator will speak at a closed location in Center City that the campaign announced last night as "a major address on race, politics, and how we bring our country together at this important moment in our history."

Given the recent uproar - which has seen Obama's standing in some national polls fall by as much as 5 percentage points in just a few days - the speech takes on an air of importance similar to John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 speech on the separation of church and state and his Catholic religion.

In this case, the issue has been fueled by incendiary videos of Wright - Obama's Chicago pastor who inspired the title of the senator's best selling "The Audacity of Hope" - saying that the U.S. brought 9/11 on itself, that the nation is responsible for AIDS and, in one sermon, proclaiming "God damn America!"

Obama went on Jim Lehrer's Newshour on PBS last night and said, "I'm not sure that we benefit from continuing to perpetuate the anger and the bitterness that I think, at this point, serves to divide rather than bring us together.

"And that's part of what this campaign has been about, is to say, let's acknowledge a difficult history, but let's move on."

Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia historian and presidential pundit, said in an interview last night that candidates aren't normally hurt so much by the words of others but that Obama is suffering because, even after months of campaigning, he remains a blank slate to some voters.

"He needs to repudiate Wright in the strongest possible terms, because what Wright said is indefensible and silly," Sabato added.

Meanwhile, Clinton also comes to Center City to work what pundits might consider a different form of damage control - moving past her controversial 2002 vote to authorize combat in Iraq.

At 1:30 p.m., the New York senator will appear in Philadelphia City Hall with what her campaign described as "leading voices for bringing our troops home" to speak on the war - the second day in a row that she's raised the issue.

In a speech delivered yesterday in Washington and focused solely on Iraq, Clinton said that she would begin withdrawing troops from the insurgency-wracked nation within 60 days of taking office.

"One choice in this election is Senator McCain, who is willing to keep this war going for 100 years," Clinton said. "You can count on him to do that.

"Another choice is Senator Obama, who has promised to bring combat troops out in 16 months.

"But according to his foreign policy adviser, you can't count on him to do that."

Political expert Sabato noted "the fifth anniversary is a great opportunity to redefine in people's mindset what she's going to do rather than what she did back in 2002, to cast her image on Iraq as forward to the future." *