Telling voters they should ”hire” her as U.S. president, the former first lady said: “I know we’ve never hired a woman. I understand that for some people that may still be kind of questionable.”

Then she named some of the more than two dozen U.S. military figures who are supporting her, including retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2004, and retired Adm. William Owens, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Why would people like Wes Clark, who have given their lifetime to our country, be supporting me unless they concluded that I was the best person for the job?” she said.

Clinton made her remarks at a rally in Akron, her third such event in a busy day of campaigning across Ohio, where she is locked in a tight race with Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama ahead of the state’s primary on Tuesday. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton 

So the Arizona senator took some time off from the campaign trail over the weekend to relax at his “cabin” in the northern part of the state, and he invited the traveling press corps over for a couple hours to evaluate his cooking skills.

Pity the vegetarian, but the meat eaters in the group — the vast majority — were impressed.

McCain shared his BBQ secrets while squeezing lemons and flipping meat.

“Get the best ribs,” he started, “the best baby back ribs.” You will find them at Costco, he said (and no, he is not an investor in the company).

“While it’s cooking you squeeze lemon on it,” he said, handing reporters tasty bits to sample.

His secret ingredient: a dry rub made of equal parts salt, pepper and garlic powder.

So how did they taste?

Objectivity prohibits a good reporter from passing judgement, but let’s put it this way: everyone wants to come back. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

The Illinois senator’s sharp comments about Clinton marked an escalation of their fight over national security ahead of crucial nominating contests in Texas and Ohio on Tuesday.

“When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation — the decision to invade Iraq — Senator Clinton got it wrong,” Obama said at a campaign rally.

“I don’t know where all this experience got her,” he said.

Just a few hours earlier in the same Ohio city, which is near Columbus, the New York senator invoked an ad she launched on Friday aimed at raising questions about the ability of Obama, a first-term senator, to handle a major foreign policy crisis.

The ad depicts sleeping children as a narrator says: “It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call.”

At her own Westerville rally, Clinton said she wanted voters to think about the presidential race as “a hiring decision.”

She added, “When those calls come at 3 a.m. it might be a national security crisis, it could be an economic crisis.”

But Obama said Clinton has been portraying herself as someone who “supposedly has all this vast foreign policy experience.”

“We’re still waiting to hear Senator Clinton tell us what precise foreign policy experience” that she would cite “that would make her prepared to answer that phone call at three in the morning,” Obama said.

Clinton has said her years as first lady from 1992 to 2000 gave her a strong understanding of national security and experience dealing with world leaders.

While on the stump on Sunday, both Democrats — who are vying to challenge likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain — touted their endorsements.

Campaigning with Obama was Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who is chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.

Clinton was endorsed and accompanied by middleweight boxing champion Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik, a native of Youngstown, Ohio. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama speaks at a town hall meeting.)