An hour after Senator Clinton seemed to deny telling NM Gov Bill Richardson that Barack Obama couldn’t win the general election in November, a spokesman backtracked — telling reporters who’d been at the press conference that she misheard the question.

Asked at her media availability today whether or not she told Governor Bill Richardson that Obama can’t win in November — as reported by ABC News — Clinton said she wouldn’t talk about private conversations, then launched into an answer on why she feels she can win.

When the reporter followed up by asking “so that’s a no?” Clinton said “That’s a no.”

While reporters interpreted that response as an answer to the original, direct question on her alleged comments, her campaign now says she thought she’d been asked whether she would give an answer or not. Spokesman Mo Elleithee says Clinton told him that her “no” meant she was continuing to refuse comment on that private conversation with Richardson.

Watch the video here and decide for yourself what she meant.

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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Two new statements by Sen Clinton and her campaign have her rivals saying she’s copying their positions.

On Wednesday, Sen Clinton told a woman in Elkader, IA who asked about Iraq that, “I think we can bring nearly everybody home, you know, certainly within a year if we keep at it and do it very steadily.” NM Gov Bill Richardson called that a “stunning flip-flop,” interpreting the remarks as a commitment to bringing all troops back.

“It is clear that she is responding directly to my latest ad and my statements that she repeatedly has called for leaving thousands of troops in Iraq indefinitely,” he said. “Rather than defending her position, apparently she simply changed it.” The Clinton campaign strenuously objects to that characterization, saying the statement was consistent with her position that she’d withdraw 1-2 of the 19-20 combat brigades in Iraq per month.

And on Thursday, Clinton released a statement on legislation she proposed to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, saying the bill “will provide a direct raise to about 20 million working Americans. It would put extra money in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Iowa families.” That prompted John Edwards to congratulate Clinton on accepting his months-old challenge to raise the minimum wage to that level, saying “just 14 days before the Iowa caucuses, Senator Clinton has answered my call.”

Clinton has yet to mention the new bill in three events on the campaign trail. You can read her campaign’s statement on the new legislation after the jump, and read Major Garrett’s take here.

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