Obama welcomes Gore’s advice

PITTSBURGH — Sen. Barack Obama’s six-day Pennsylvania bus tour ended yesterday with news he’d chipped away at his rival’s lead and a promise that Al Gore would be welcome to battle climate change in an Obama White House.

When asked by a voter if he’d give the former vice president a special global-warming Cabinet post, Mr. Obama didn’t hesitate, noting that he talks often with Mr. Gore, a Nobel peace prize winner who remains neutral in the Democrats’ nomination battle.

“I would,” Mr. Obama said in Wallingford. “Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem.”

Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential race, is a favorite of Democrats for his environmental efforts but also is mocked by those who don’t agree climate change is caused by human activity. He’s refrained from backing either Mr. Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though Mr. Gore served as the No. 2 in her husband’s administration.

Mr. Gore, who some unsuccessfully tried to draft for another presidential bid last year, also is increasingly being looked to as a senior Democratic leader who might help broker a deal, should the prolonged nomination fight harm the party.

Both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton laud Mr. Gore on the campaign trail, and have each said before they would welcome him to play a role in their plans to green the nation.

The promise to offer Mr. Gore a Cabinet post capped Mr. Obama’s multicity bus tour, a town-hall courtship of Pennsylvania’s blue-collar workers, union activists and college students.

Mr. Obama mostly stuck to the economy while crossing the state, telling voters he wants to help the middle class get ahead with new jobs, affordable education and a new health care policy.

“I’m not sure that the same jobs are going to be back but I think we can produce good jobs with good wages and good benefits,” the Illinois senator said at West Chester University while appearing on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” his final stop of the trip.

Polls show Mrs. Clinton is still favored in the Keystone State, but the margin shrank this week as Mr. Obama flooded the airwaves with television ads and wooed voters with face time, including a host of visits to bars and an infamous game of bowling.

Mrs. Clinton, of New York, aimed to maintain her lead yesterday by attacking Sen. John McCain on the economy, going after the presumptive Republican nominee with a new ad.

The spot plays on her “3 a.m.” ad from Texas depicting the next president’s phone signaling a problem on the other end.

“There’s a phone ringing in the White House and this time the crisis is economic. Home foreclosures mounting, markets teetering,” the narrator says as images of children sleeping grace the screen.

“John McCain just said the government shouldn’t take any real action on the housing crisis, he’d let the phone keep ringing,” the ad continues. “Hillary Clinton has a plan to protect our homes, create jobs.”

Clinton aides said the ad is a “substantial” buy in Pennsylvania, but noted Mr. Obama is spending more than her.

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