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.”

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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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.

She may not have much support among the younger generation of Hollywood stars like Jessica Biel or Scarlett Johannson — both of whom are backing Barack Obama — but Hillary Clinton got some help at a rally in East LA from some old guard celebrity endorsers.

Before Hillary arrived, the crowd of 5,000 at Cal State Los Angeles heard from Oscar winning actress Sally Field and West Wing star Bradley Whitford (who’ll always be the villain in “Billy Madison” to me). Clinton friends Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen were in the audience. And NBA legend Magic Johnson talked about the need for someone with experience to bring change in America.

As for Sen Clinton herself, she sharpened her final argument leading up to Super Tuesday — and borrowed a popular theme from a former opponent, John Edwards, who made his Two Americas a stump speech staple in 2004.

Hillary turned those two Americas into “the America I see,” where there’s a prosperous middle class, families can afford to send their children to college, and everyone will have health care. That America, she said, will begin on January 20, 2009 — when the next president is sworn in.

She used the new framework to draw some old distinctions with her rival, Sen Barack Obama.

-On  change vs experience: “I offer in this campaign a record of making positive change, of standing up with those who are voiceless, powerless, hopeless, year after year after year after year after year after year. Because I know, talk about change is easy. Making change is hard.”

-And on providing universal health care: “This is a fight worth having. My opponent will not commit to universal health care,” she said — drawing boos from the crowd. “I do not believe we should nominate any Democrat who will not proudly stand here today, tomorrow and the next day” for universal coverage.

And as the GOP comes closer to selecting its eventual nominee, Sen Clinton threw some punches at a likely general election opponent.  “We need a president and commander in chief who understands we have to withdraw from Iraq,” she said, “unlike Senator McCain, who said he’d be happy to be there for 100 years.”

“I just want you to think about this: I believe that we can have an election this time where all of the issues including National Security are ones that Democrats can stand and proudly promote,” she said. “I take a back seat to no one in my commitment to protect and defend this country .”

Senator Clinton rallied 7,000 students and supporters in San Diego, highlighting the differences between her health care plan and Sen Obama’s.

But two student protesters nearly stole the show. They held up a big red banner directly behind Sen Clinton that read “Nepotistic Tyrant Hands Off Iran.” One waved a picture of Hillary with horns and the caption “complicit criminal.”

They silently held the sign uninterrupted for just a few minutes before two of Clinton’s burlier supporters in bright yellow union shirts confronted them. One ripped down the big red banner and started to walk away - when one student reached out to grab it back. Bad idea. The rather large union guy lurched back at him and seemed ready to come to blows before he was restrained by his friend.

The man then ripped the Hillary picture out of the other student’s hands to cheers from the crowd. As the two surly union guys returned to their seats, the two protesters were escorted out of the building by security, complaining the whole way up the stadium steps.

At a press availability in Los Angeles this morning, Senator Obama called the debate last night a “good” one and then highlighted the differences between Hillary Clinton and himself on the issues of Iraq, health care, and special interests.

He also stressed that he has done more than any other to engage people “who otherwise would not participate” in the political process, which is why he believes he would be more successful in a general election than Clinton. “I’m confident I will get her votes if I’m the nominee. It’s not clear that she would get the votes I got if she were the nominee,” he said, referring to the constituents who would be more inclined to vote for Obama, but not Clinton.

He’s also confident that, in an Obama-McCain match-up, he would take the Independent vote. Watch his explanation here:

Obama then flew to New Mexico, where he delivered a speech on the economy - and took a swipe at the Republican frontrunner for his position on tax cuts. “There was a time when Senator McCain courageously defied the fiscal madness of massive tax cuts for the wealthy in the midst of a costly war.  But that was before he started running for the Republican nomination and fell in line.  Now he wants to make permanent the tax cuts he once denounced. Well I haven’t changed my mind.  They have been an economic disaster for America, and I will end them when I am President,” Obama said.

California’s movie-star Governor Arnold Scwharzenegger is throwing his support behind John McCain—giving the Senator his second major endorsement in less than 24 hours.

On Wednesday, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain. Both Rudy and Ah-nuld accompanied McCain on a tour of a Los Angeles solar technology company Thursday. Afterward, a reporter asked whether the support of the governor and mayor do anything to help the Senator with the conservative wing of the Republican party.

Gov. Schwarzenegger explained why he decided to endorse McCain, when just days ago he said he was staying out of it.

The endorsement was McCain’s only public event of the day. That means he spent almost two days in California, and never held a campaign event where he actually met voters face to face. A McCain aide said the only thing the campaign wanted circulated Thursday was the image of the Senator with the governor.

A sign of things to come for this debate?

Obama started off by saying, “I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign, I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this is over.”

“We’re running a competitive race, but it’s because we both love this country,” he said. But he did get in a jab: “I think what is at stake right now is whether we are looking backwards or we are looking forwards. I think it is the past versus the future.”

And Hillary Clinton used a line she often breaks out on the stump — saying, “on January 20, 2009, the next president of the United States will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol;” but rather than saying she hopes to be that president, she included her Democratic rival. “I, as a Democrat, fervently hope you are looking at that next president,” she said. “Either Barack or I will raise our hand and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

Most of the first third is about health care, and is a substantive, civil debate on policy differences — and that’s most likely by design. Obama reporter Bonney Kapp says a senior Obama aide cautioned reporters that this debate would likely be less acrimonious than the previous affair in South Carolina.

Kicking off the pre-program festivities at the Kodak Theater, the head of the California Democratic Party just compared this debate to the most important political face-offs of all time: “Lincoln-Douglas; Nixon-Kenney; and Obama-Clinton,” he said.

Most don’t expect tonight’s proceedings to enter that historic pantheon, but there is a lot of anticipation for the first head-to-head debate in the Democratic Party.

Two schools of thought: one, Obama continues to hammer away at Hillary, as he did in a speech in Denver last night and during the last debate in Myrtle Beach, SC — but without John Edwards to come to her defense, as Edwards often did in South Carolina. It’s plausible because she’s still the front-runner and the attacks could bring her down a peg, and because he seems to come off looking more presidential than she does when things get heated.

Or two, in the last debate before a massive contest on February 5th — where no matter who wins the most states, the delegate counts are likely to end up fairly close — both candidates could decide to play it safe, keeping it civil so as not to risk a disastrous misstep. If both candidates are feeling good about their standing going into Super Tuesday, we may not see the kind of fireworks that went off in the last debate.

One early indication of how things will go: some pre-debate smack-talk from Clinton spokesman Phil Singer, who asks “Which Barack Obama will show up at tonight’s Democratic debate?” — the one who Singer says once eschewed personal attacks, or the one who he says has been “personally launching or allowing his campaign to launch a series of personal negative attacks against Hillary Clinton.”

Read the full memo after the break.

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According to National Journal magazine (as forwarded by the RNC), Senator Barack Obama is ranked as the Senate’s most liberal member. Yes, that means he is considered more liberal than liberal Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Schumer, and Sanders. And, of course Hillary Clinton, who is ranked 16th. In his first two years in the U.S. Senate, Obama was ranked 16th and 10th, moving left in the run up to the race for the Democratic nomination.

This from the candidate who often touts his appeal to Republicans and Independents, saying he can bridge the divide between “Red States and Blue States. ” He also has been known to say that Democrats don’t have a “monopoly on wisdom,” and so would consider Republicans for Cabinet positions. This broad appeal, his ability to connect with Republicans, is something Obama hopes can help him in the general election, should he win the nomination.

Spokesman Bill Burton responded to the National Journal’s assessment, saying: “On 65 of the 99 votes that both Obama and Clinton voted on, they voted exactly the same way on all but two – with Obama voting to strengthen the ethics bill by creating an Office of Public Integrity and Clinton voting against it. Only in Washington can you get falsely attacked for being like Reagan one week and labeled the most liberal the next.  The tendency of Washington to apply a misleading label to every person and idea is just one of the many things we need to change about how things operate inside the beltway.”

If you want to read how National Journal came to their assessment - click here.