Clinton rival Barack Obama joined in the Democratic assault on Republican financial policies, as both campaigns played to voter fears about the increasingly shaky American economy, which has pushed the Iraq war to second place as a campaign issue.

Obama, meanwhile, on Monday secured the backing of a second female U.S. senator, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Her support was a boost for the candidate who has lagged well-behind the former first lady among white women.

And an Associated Press analysis of returns from Texas Democratic county conventions over the weekend, showed the first-term Illinois senator had won the overall delegate race in the state 99 to 94.

According to the latest AP tally, Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates to 1,501 for Clinton. The totals include separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates who are free to back either candidate.

In Mississippi, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain opened a drive to define himself as a candidate with a proud military pedigree and unassailable national security credentials.

But McCain, who has tied his candidacy to military success in Iraq, found himself analyzing the recent flare-up of violence there.

The veteran Arizona senator said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had moved government troops against criminals and militant militia forces in the southern port city of Basra last week without clearing the operation with U.S. military commanders.

"Maliki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans," McCain told reporters in Meridian, Mississippi, as he was traveling through the city before delivering a speech.

About 400 people died in the week of fighting in largely lawless Basra, Iraq's second largest city and its primary access to Persian Gulf sea lanes.

McCain further said both the United States and Britain, which took control of Basra after the initial invasion in 2003, did too little to stop Iranian Shiite clerics from infiltrating and gaining significant influence.

"These are the penalties we continue to pay for the very bad mishandling of the war for nearly four years while they (Iranians and their influence) became solidly entrenched," McCain said.

McCain emerged victorious in the Republican nomination contest weeks ago. And with seven months remaining before the November general election, polls indicate a tight race with either Obama or Clinton.

McCain mentioned neither of his potential opponents in his speech Monday. Nor did he discuss the war in Iraq or the troubled economy and spike in home foreclosures — issues on which he will be hammered by either Democrat.

Instead he portrayed himself as a patriot who was born into a family of American warriors devoted to honor, courage and duty.

"I am the son and grandson of admirals," said McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

Clinton opened fire on Republican stewardship of the economy after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced an ambitious plan to give the Federal Reserve more oversight of the nation's financial regulatory system and to merge regulatory agencies with overlapping jurisdictions. The proposal also would create a new commission to set minimum licensing standards for mortgage brokers and move toward federal regulation of the insurance industry.

"No amount of rearranging the deck chairs can hide the fact that our housing and credit markets are in crisis, and they're sinking deeper every day," Clinton said at a campaign appearance. "Every day we fail to take aggressive action is a day lost."

She criticized Bush for accelerating the situation through excessive borrowing and by favoring tax cuts for corporate interests and the wealthy. She also had unkind words for McCain's speech last week in which he resisted federal intervention to quell the financial unrest.

"Best I could determine his plan was not to have a plan," Clinton said.

Obama wielded the economic cudgel as well at a town hall meeting and gas station visit Monday.

"I don't want to make promises I can't keep. So I don't promise that the minute I'm elected suddenly the gas prices drop a buck," Obama told the town-hall audience. "That's not gonna happen but what I can promise is we can go after those windfalls (excessive oil company profits)."

Enlarge By Charles Dharapak, AP Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigns at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Fairless Hills, Pa. March 31.

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