Hillary Clinton made her first trip to Oregon, speaking to a packed high school gym just outside of Portland. While they acknowledge that her rival Barack Obama is favored here, the Clinton campaign is playing hard — naming a state director and what the campaign calls a “very active” steering committee, ramping up field staff and opening a state headquarters in Portland next week and satellite offices in every congressional district.

They’re also tailoring their strategy around Oregon’s unique mail-in primary system; ballots will be mailed out on April 28th, and the majority of voters are expected to submit ballots through the post.

“I’m here to meet with you and talk with you and hopefully make my case to you,” she told the voters of Hillsboro, OR. “This is my first trip in a campaign of firsts, and I’m glad to be able to blaze a home in the land of the Trailblazers.”

But even in the Beaver State, she was focused on Michigan and Florida. She’s long argued that their delegates should count, but today she claimed their popular votes should count as well — a move that would put her much closer to Obama in that metric.

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Returning to Los Angeles for a fundraiser in Beverly Hills that capped off a 24 hour million-dollar West Coast swing, Hillary Clinton made it clear that she’s not going away any time soon. After thanking a children’s choir that sang about soldiering on, Clinton said “I loved their inspirational song. We are going to keep going and we are going to keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going.”

But the New York Senator made it clear how important two states that have already voted are to her nomination hopes. “I’m staying in this until Michigan and Florida have a chance to be heard,” she said. “Those votes should go right now into the popular vote, and those delegates need to be counted.”

“Neither Barack or I have the delegates we need. This idea that one of us does and one of us doesn’t, is not the case,” she argued. “This is a neck and neck close race in delegates and votes. And if we acted like Democrats and figured out how we were going to honor the efforts made by these 2.3 million voters to make sure that they were part of this process, it would be more clear that we have to keep going.”

Though the people in the room had already helped with donations and delivering their state for Senator Clinton, she told them she needs more help from California to bring home the nomination — asking donors to go to her website to contribute and get involved, and to bring their friends. “I’m being outspent in every contest,” she said. “I will be outspent in these next contests, but if we have enough money we are going to do just fine.”

Clinton was joined on stage by Hollywood actors and Clinton backers Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Daphne Zuniga and Fran Drescher,  while Hollywood director and Hillary supporter Rob Reiner emceed the event — and singled out one particular participant. “There is an uncommitted superdelegate in this room,” he told the crowd, “and I’m going to help them out.” Making Clinton’s case to this anonymous individual, Reiner joked “I’m talking to the superdelegate now, the rest of you can talk amongst yourselves.”

Memphis, TN — Sen. John McCain may face questions about his civil rights record as he visits Memphis Friday to participate in a number of events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination.

Scheduled to address the Southern Christian Leadership Conference–which King headed up for more than a decade–as well as lay a wreath at the National Civil Rights Museum, McCain’s initial opposition to a holiday commemorating the slain civil rights leader could be among the issues that come up during his trip.

In his first year in the U.S. House, McCain voted with the minority and opposed the 1983 law creating the national holiday to honor King, but reversed his decision around 1990 after he says he “learned” more about King’s achievements. As he fought for an Arizona state ballot measure to recognize MLK Day in 1990, McCain successfully pushed former President Reagan to endorse the referendum.

McCain has said on a number of occasions that he regrets his original 1983 vote and told reporters this week that he is “very proud” of his record of support for King.

“I voted in my…first year in Congress against it and then I began to learn and I studied and people talked to me. And I not only supported it but I fought very hard in my home state of Arizona for recognition against a governor who was of my own party,” McCain said during a media availability aboard his plane Monday (video above). “I had not been involved in the issue. I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a very large African American population and it had not been in issue. It just simply had not been.”

In a February 2000 interview with ABC News, McCain said his initial opposition to a holiday was based on his belief that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.”

Asked on Monday why he shifted his position and later supported a state measure creating a holiday, McCain told reporters that he “learned (that King) was a transcendent figure in American history. He deserved to be honored and that I thought it was appropriate to do so.”

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Hillary Clinton denied reports that she tried to pursuade NM Governor Bill Richardson to endorse her by telling him that Barack Obama could not win the general election in November.

At a media availability in Burbank, CA, Sen Clinton said “I have consistently made the case that I can win, because I believe I can win. And sometimes people draw the conclusion I’m saying somebody else can’t win. I can win. I know I can win. That’s why I do this every day and that’s what my campaign is about. I’m in it to win it, and I intend to do just that.”

Asked point blank whether she’d made the alleged remark, she said “that’s a no.”

As her campaign announced that it had raised $20m in March — just half as much as Sen Obama raised in the same period — Sen Clinton also denied that her campaign is in financial crisis. “I’ll have enough money to compete,” she said. “Obviously Senator Obama has more than enough money to compete.”

Clinton also said the recent spate of bad economic news makes her feel like “Paulette Revere. ‘The recession is coming, the recession is coming.’ And at some point, maybe somebody will actually do something about it.”

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TERRE HAUTE, IN — Hillary Clinton is turning up the heat on Barack Obama in the battle to hold a re-vote in the state of Michigan — calling him out for being scared of another election.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand why Senator Obama seems to be afraid of letting there be a revote in Michigan,” she said. “It’s going to hurt our party and our chances in November.”

Senator Clinton ridiculed a memo from the Obama campaign’s attorney Bob Bauer outlining the reasons for his opposition to the revote, saying “He comes up with all these legalistic answers.”

She also laid the blame for Michigan’ failure to come to a conensus on the issue squarely at Obama’s feet.”The people of Michigan and their legislature made it very clear that they would proceed with a revote. Unfortunately, Senator Obama’s campaign said no,” she said.

“So you’ll have to ask him what he’s afraid of.”

Senator Clinton took her case for a re-vote directly to the people of Michigan at a union hall in Detroit today, telling voters “I am here for one simple reason: to make sure Michigan’s votes are counted, and your voices are heard in this election.”

The campaign has accused Senator Obama of standing in the way of draft legislation for a revote with a series of legal objections; the Obama campaign says it’s the Clinton camp that’s playing politics with the issue.

Senator Clinton insisted instead that, for her, the issue is one of basic American rights. “I will always defend your right to vote, no matter who you choose to vote for in the end,” she said.

And while the Obama campaign points out that she said in January that the Michigan results didn’t count for anything, Clinton claims she’s always cared about the voters in the Wolverine State.

“I’ve been saying for some time that the people of Michigan and Florida must have a voice in selecting our nominee for president,” she said. “When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believe your voices and your votes should count.”

As spokesman Phil Singer accused the Obama campaign on a conference call of pursuing an obstructionist agenda designed to disenfranchise voters, Senator Clinton appealed directly to her Democratic opponent in a subtler manner – while still managing to throw in a standard barbs attacking him as the candidate of rhetoric.

“Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” she said. “Today I’m urging him to match those words with actions, to make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election.”

“This is a crucial test: does he mean what he says or not?”

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Florida Senator and Hillary Clinton supporter Bill Nelson, who has led the fight to get his state’s delegates seated at the party’s national convention, thinks he’s found a solution — a state-wide re-vote by mail.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Nelson calls the solution “a practical and affordable way to conduct another election that would be fair to all involved” — arguing that the process “would be cheaper, less cumbersome and more inclusive” than a new primary election, which the FL Senator estimates would cost $18 million.

Nelson already tried to convince the DNC to underwrite the cost of another primary; now, he hopes the state party will foot the much smaller bill for his new proposal — which he estimates at about $6 million. He’d need an answer fairly quickly; overseas ballots, he says, would have to go out by the third week of April, with a return deadline of early June.

Read the full op-ed after the jump.

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West Palm Beach, FL — Campaigning in Florida Tuesday, Sen. John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama for his intention to hold talks with Cuban dictator Raul Castro–as the GOP nominee looks to appeal to the large Cuban population in the state.

“I would not in any way, as Senator Obama wants to do, legitimize an individual who has been responsible for …repression, political prisons and a gulag,” McCain said during a media availability with Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

Asked if Obama’s foreign policy meant he was “naive” McCain deferred, choosing instead to call the Illinois Democrat “inexperienced.”

“I don’t know if he is naïve or not. I know he is inexperienced…hat approach is something that I think would only serve to legitimize the person who has a many many year record, decades of record of cruelty and oppression to the people of Cuba,” McCain said.

Obama spokesperson Bill Burton responded to the comments by comparing McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton for both pushing a policy that “has failed America and the Cuban people for fifty years.”

“John McCain and Hillary Clinton both have the experience of supporting a Bush Cuba policy that has failed America and the Cuban people for fifty years. Instead of empty rhetoric, Barack Obama actually has a strategy to help advance liberty for the Cuban people, starting with lifting all restrictions on family travel and cash remittances and pursuing direct diplomacy. Cuban Americans will be our best ambassadors for change, and will give the Cuban people more space from their regime,” Burton said in a written statement.

Waco, TX — Though he recognizes the fiscal difficulties and political challenges associated with competing in California in November, Sen. John McCain said Monday he will “insist” on campaigning in the Golden State.

“It’s the biggest state in America. I think as a Western Senator I understand their issues. I think the environmental issues are very important in California. I think I can appeal to the Hispanic vote, I think I can appeal to the Asian vote, I think I can appeal to the independent voter–which is a larger and larger percentage of registered voters,” McCain said aboard his “Straight Talk” bus after a townhall meeting in Waco, TX. “I just want to compete in California, and I understand the drawbacks of that, the cost of media, and all of those aspects of it…I don’t think, as a candidate, that I want to say that we’re not going to compete in the largest state in America, which is next door to my home state of Arizona.”

McCain also suggested yesterday he would try to compete in New Jersey. (audio from bus below)

While a Republican has failed to win California since 1988, GOPers have long wanted to paint the state red again. Most recently, Karl Rove advised then-Governor George W. Bush to make a significant effort there in 2000 and received some backlash after Dubya still lost by 12 percent and more than 1.2 million votes in the state.

While senior campaign advisers said they believe they will start with an edge among Golden State Hispanic voters because of McCain’s leadership on the immigration compromise (and will also have an advantage within the group if Obama is their Democratic rival), they also acknowledge privately that winning California will be challenging.

At worst, they say a McCain push in the state would force the Democrats to defend what should be safe territory.

However among other issues, the presumptive GOP nominee will be at a severe financial disadvantage (outraised almost 4:1 by Clinton and nearly 5:1 by Obama in February alone) and California is a very expensive paid media state. Given that McCain will likely have to play defense in some of his own red states as Obama and Clinton have said they are intent on competing in the south and mountain west, the AZ Senator’s financial resources will be limited.

As of 6pm ET Thursday, the link to the Tennessee Republican Party’s controversial press release attacking Sen. Barack Obama for anti-Semitic ties was officialy dead. (See Web screenshot below)

The release, titled “Anti-Semites for Obama,” originally contained a reference to Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and the Drudge-promoted photo of the Democrat in a traditional Somali outfit. After receiving criticism from Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee, the state party stripped those elements from the release late Wednesday but defended the rest of the statement. The RNC publicly condemned the TN GOP’s conduct Thursday morning.

More background here…

And per local TN reporting, it looks like Sen. Lamar Alexander threw down the gauntlet..