Clinton, in Phila., focuses on crime fight, jabs Obama

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, campaigning yesterday in West Philadelphia, announced a $4-billion-a-year anticrime plan that would put 100,000 new police officers on the streets and help state and local governments reduce the flow of repeat offenders back to prison.

She also would eliminate the mandatory federal five-year sentence for crack-cocaine users as part of the package's emphasis on steering nonviolent offenders away from incarceration.

But violent crime was on Clinton's mind as she spoke in a neighborhood that Mayor Nutter said was too tough for Osama bin Laden and where people, he added, were "more worried about Al-Gangster than al-Qaeda."

Clinton said that her proposals would cut the murder rate in big cities by half, and that crime was reduced to historic lows during her husband's presidency with federal funding then for police, since cut, and an assault-weapons ban, among other policies.

"We have to get back to doing what we know works," Clinton said during an event at the gymnasium of the West Branch YMCA. "I'm old-fashioned about that. I think that you should actually look for solutions to problems, to find out what works and execute - enough with the speeches, enough with the talking."

Later, at an event in the atrium of the Main Building at Drexel University, Clinton attacked her opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, over remarks he made about Pennsylvania in California on Sunday.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and ... the jobs have been gone now for 25 years," Obama said.

He said that political leaders had promised a revival that had not come. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them . . . as a way to explain their frustrations."

Clinton said that Obama had insulted the "resilient" and "optimistic" residents of the state. "Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them," she said. "They need a president who stands up for them."

At a town-hall meeting yesterday in Terre Haute, Ind., Obama responded: "Sen. Clinton says: 'No, I don't think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack's being condescending.' John McCain says: 'Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he's obviously out of touch with people.'

"Out of touch? Out of touch? . . . No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on. . . . People are fed up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."

Nationally, although violent crime has increased during the last two years after dropping for more than a decade - and cities such as Philadelphia are facing sharp upticks in murder rates - the issue has received far less emphasis during the campaign than Iraq and the economy.

To stop the revolving door between prison and the streets, Clinton said, her program would include $1 billion to give grants to states to fund anti-recidivism measures, including education, job training and drug rehabilitation.

Clinton supports a Senate bill that would repeal the five-year term for crack users, who are predominantly black, because the federal law punishes them more harshly than those who use powder cocaine, who are mostly white. That disparity has long been a target of civil rights and other organizations.

The promise to flood the streets with police officers had a familiar ring to it. President Bill Clinton enacted such a program, called COPS, in 1994. His wife's campaign christened that part of her initiative COPS 2.0.

"The COPS program in the '90s led to a reduction in crime because of added police and resources," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said. "In recent years there have been serious cuts in this area, and her plan to commit dollars and resources will have a positive impact on crime."

It was a chance for Hillary Clinton to benefit from an association with a fondly remembered aspect of her husband's presidency. In recent days, she has disavowed his trade-expansion policies, such as NAFTA, blamed for the loss of jobs in Pennsylvania and other industrialized states.

Clinton said she would pay for the $4 billion initiative with savings identified by a special commission to ferret out "unnecessary and outdated corporate subsidies."

After the YMCA event, Clinton walked down Chestnut Street with Nutter, stopping to sign autographs, pose for cell-phone pictures, and chat. On the north side of the street, a noisy group of Obama supporters taunted the Clinton traveling party with posters, drawings, signs, and T-shirts featuring their candidate's face.

Clinton mingled at the 52d Skyline Breakfast, a diner on the corner. When it was time to go, she asked for an "iced tea, unsweetened" and settled for a bottle of Diet Snapple.

She placed a $20 bill on the counter to pay, but the change drawer was locked, so Nutter reached into his wallet to hand over a few singles.

At a San Francisco fund-raiser Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama described residents of small towns in Pennsylvania, according to the Huffington Post Web site. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday his description had not been her experience.

What he said

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and,

like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate, and they have not. And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Clinton's reaction

"As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who

are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive,

who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working

hard every day for a better future, for themselves and their children.

"Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks

down on them. They need a president who stands

up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

Obama's response

"And so people . . . don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. . . . And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can

count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington."

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