STURGIS, S.D. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain attempted to harness a powerful engine of heartland conservatism on Monday — addressing a giant rally of motorcycle enthusiasts.

Hundreds of thousands of people converge on the remote town of Sturgis, South Dakota, each year for a week-long festival of rock music, wild, good times and American biker culture.

“I recognize that sound,” McCain said as dozens of bikers revved their engines as he walked on stage in a sustained growl of approval. “It’s the sound of freedom.”

The U.S. economy, energy and foreign policy are key issues in the contest between McCain and rival Barack Obama but the race could turn on competing visions of U.S. values.

With their love of the open road, many bikers see themselves as standard-bearers of American freedom.

An endless procession of bikers, many not wearing helmets, cruised the rural roads around Sturgis on Monday in a blur of chrome and leather.

The bikers form a natural audience for McCain. Many are war veterans who say they see McCain as an embodiment of patriotism and service because he spent years in a North Vietnamese prison during the Vietnam war.

Seven bikers carrying big U.S. flags escorted McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus into the Buffalo Chip fields where the festival was held.

But Kip Benbow, who rode his Harley three days from Indiana for the convention, said he supported McCain because he would defend another aspect of his way of life.

“I want the right to protect my house and my property. That’s my freedom and my right to arms. … I don’t want nobody messing with my guns,” said Benbow, who said he had as many as 40 guns at home.

McCain made his pitch to the bikers not on gun rights but on the issue he said was at the core of freedom: honoring the military.

“You are the heartland of America,” he told a crowd of thousands after a searing rendition of the U.S. national anthem played on electric guitar. “You are the heart and soul of America and I am honored to be in your company.

The bikers revved their engines in a deafening roar of approval.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Synder (McCain July 21 in South Portland Maine)

RAPID CITY, S.D. - While pundits pondered the intricacies of how Hillary Clinton might drop out of the presidential race, voters in South Dakota greeted the candidate on Monday in a traditional style by talking about issues that affect their lives.

As she campaigned in a Rapid City diner, Clinton chatted with a nurse who asked about improving health care and a woman who wanted to talk about veterans’ care.

A few feet away, a young woman described a friend paralyzed in a wrestling accident and implored Clinton to support stem cell research.

Stardust Red Bow, 27, told Clinton she owed $90,000 in student loans after earning her master’s degree in social work.

“There are people with the same problems all around our nation,” Red Bow said after talking to Clinton. ”Even if she doesn’t win, I’m sure she will still be active in politics and can still sponsor bills.”

At another table, Joseph Bryant, 19, asked Clinton her views on women in combat and the New York senator talked about the support and medical roles women fill in Iraq and elsewhere.

“I thought it was a great answer,” Bryant said as she moved on.

Margaret Dimock, 38, burst into tears as she told Clinton she works three jobs and
has no health insurance because she has had seizures since childhood.

Clinton asked her staff to take down Dimock’s name and address to help her find assistance. 

“Don’t get discouraged. Keep the faith,” Clinton told her. ”We’ll follow
through.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Clinton campaigns in Rapid City, South Dakota) 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As Barack Obama gains momentum in his battle with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s 2008 presidential nomination, there are signs that the scrappy New York senator’s inner fighter may be giving way to the uniter who will knit the fractured party back together once the bruising nomination process ends. 

But parsing her recent campaign speeches from West Virginia and South Dakota to Oregon and Kentucky, Clinton does not appear ready to give up the fight just yet.  

At a speech late on Friday here, Clinton appeared initially to aim for a conciliatory tone toward Obama, only mentioning her challenger to draw comparisons between women and blacks — two groups that she said had suffered greatly under the original U.S. Constitution written by America’s founders. 

“Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you were fully included in the vision of our founders,” Clinton said.

“We’re here for one reason - to make sure the next president is a Democrat,” Clinton told the dinner held by the Kentucky Democratic Party. “Once we have a nominee I know in my heart we will come together as a party.”

But later in the speech she used very specific pronouns: calling for “a Democratic president who will roll up her sleeves and get to work for all of you.”

A day earlier in Charleston, West Virginia, Clinton had dismissed calls for her to drop out of the race as “déjà vu all over again,”  and recalled similar entreaties before she won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. 

“There are people who said we need to end this before we get to West Virginia. Well, I don’t think so,” Clinton said. “I was never supposed to win Indiana.” 

Clinton has vowed to continue running until the voting concludes on June 3, but she and campaign aides have hinted she would step aside if it is clear that Obama will be the nominee. 

So which is it? Hillary the Fighter or Hillary the Uniter? Time will tell.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Baltimore (A Clinton supporter holds up boxing gloves at fundraiser in New York City.)