“We have had a rough couple of weeks, I won’t deny that,” Barack Obama admitted to reporters today in Indianapolis. Since Reverend Wright’s public resurfacing last weekend, Clinton has been closing the gap in national and state polls while Obama has been putting out the flames of controversy.

It’s true that most voters don’t ask Obama about his former pastor - and today he noted if he talks about those issues important to Americans, “I think we have a terrific chance” of winning the Democratic nomination. In the meantime, he’s still facing questions from reporters about the effect his former pastor’s is having on his campaign.

When asked if he’d be upset if he lost Indiana “by a hair” because of Reverend Wright, Obama grinned. “I don’t think that what happened with Reverend Wright was helpful. Right? I don’t think there’s any denying that,” he said. “This will be something that they factor in to the mix. How it plays itself out, I can’t tell….I don’t spend a lot of time doing is obsessing about what ifs and should have beens. What I’ll do is we’ll see what happens on Tuesday and then we’re gonna keep on going to the next contest,” he shared.

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KINSTON, NC — Hillary Clinton isn’t impressed that the number of lost jobs last month was lower than expected. She often says her campaign is about “jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs;” today, she told voters in Eastern North Carolina that a lost job is a lost job is a lost job.

“The economy is not working the way it needs to, to create good jobs and produce rising incomes,” she said. “We lost 20,000 jobs last month and people are saying, “well that’s better than we thought.” I don’t accept that at all.”

“We’re not supposed to be losing jobs in America, we’re supposed to be creating jobs in America. So losing 20,000 jobs isn’t exactly a welcome piece of information.”

Clinton released a statement on the jobs report; you can read it after the jump.

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Former GOP presidential candidate and close McCain friend, Fred Thompson, is set to join the presumptive GOP nominee during his visit to North Carolina next week. Since losing the South Carolina primary on Jan. 18, Thompson has been absent from the limelight-even choosing to drop out of the race via written statement.

McCain is set to make a timely visit to the Tar Heel State, where primary voters go to the polls on Tuesday, and hopes to scoop up some media coverage. He is set to hit Charlotte on Monday and deliver a speech at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem the next day.

In recent weeks, McCain has campaigned with both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. While there was a lot of VP buzz when the AZ Senator was joined by Romney and Huckabee, expect a lot less around Fred—the former TN Senator even told Fox News last week that a number 2 slot is “not in the cards.”

McCain is also set to attend a big $$ NYC fundraiser in New York City next Wednesday where yet another former rival–Rudy Giuliani–will be in attendance.

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The candidate herself seems just fine… but this Hillary balloon doll could blow up any second. Senator Clinton brought the mini-HRC to the back of her press plane as we departed North Carolina — and sat it down by one of the staffers just to make sure he didn’t miss her when she went back up front.

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RALEIGH, North Carolina — Hillary Clinton’s long odds in the Tar Heel state got a little shorter today, as she picked up the endorsement of popular North Carolina governor Mike Easley. A former Edwards supporter, the two-term executive was swayed by Clinton’s focus on issues he’s been passionate about – including education and innovation.

In announcing his endorsement, Easley said he was also drawn to her strength and experience. “There’s nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman, so I’ve been in hog heaven today,” he said. “This lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

Easley told the small crowd gathered at North Carolina State University that he was looking for a candidate who could turn the country around immediately – and took a jab at North Carolina frontrunner Barack Obama in the process. “There is a lot of yes we can and yes we should going around. Hillary Clinton is ready to deliver,” he said. That’s the difference. She’s ready to deliver today. Immediately.”

While the campaign has downplayed expectations in the state, Senator Clinton has spent a considerable amount of time here – targeting military families with a series of events featuring North Carolina native and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Hugh Shelton, working class families concerned about the economy, and women with an event at Wake Forest University with Maya Angelou.

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GRAHAM, NC — Hillary Clinton says John McCain’s letter to North Carolina Republicans asking them to pull an ad featuring controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright didn’t go far enough to get the ads off the airwaves.

In the Tar Heel state, the GOP is attacking Lt Gov Beverly Eaves Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore for endorsing Barack Obama — using a long segment of one of the more inflammatory speeches by Obama’s former reverend to paint the two local Democrats with the same anti-American brush. And in Mississippi, a congressional candidate has a similar ad attacking his Democratic opponent using Wright and Obama.

McCain wrote to the North Carolina party urging them to remove the ad from the air, but the party refused.

Senator Clinton told reporters today that McCain needs to go further. “I believe that if Senator McCain were serious, he would do more than send a letter,” she said. “He is the putative nominee. I think he could very clearly tell the North Carolina party, tell the Mississippi party that he would not tolearte these kinds of advertisements, and I’m waiting to see whether he does that.”

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WILMINGTON, NC — First she said that if Barack Obama didn’t like the questions he received from debate moderators, she’d debate him Lincoln-Douglas style. Now, Hillary Clinton says she’ll even take the show on the road.

Obama told reporters this week that he’s ruled out another debate before the next round of primaries, moderators or no moderators — saying “Rather than being in a studio, I want to make sure that we’re reaching out to folks where they live.”

Senator Clinton’s response? “We could even do it on the back of a flatbed truck, doesn’t even have to be in some fancy studio somewhere,” she told the cheering crowd at an outdoor rally in the shadows of the USS North Carolina.

Clinton said she was “very, very regretful” that Obama would not agree to a new debate in the Tar Heel state . “He turned down the debate that I agreed to here in North Carolina,” she said. “There were 20,000 people who had already emailed in for tickets. There was that much interest.”

“I know his supporters say well, they didn’t like the debate in Philadelphia. The questions were kind of mean and they were sort of tough. You know, I’ve gotta say, tough questions in a debate is nothing like the tough decisions you’ve got to make in the White House. And I think that this state deserves a debate.”

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When asked by reporters in Indianapolis this morning about Senator Clinton’s offer to debate sans moderator, Obama noted he only had nine more days to campaign in Indiana and North Carolina. “Rather than being in a studio, I want to make sure that we’re reaching out to folks where they live, answering their questions and having as many interactions as possible,” he explained.

But don’t rule out a debate after May 6th - “You know, I’m more than happy to consider something after Indiana and North Carolina. At this point, we just don’t have a lot of time,” Obama said.

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Barack Obama definitively told host Chris Wallace he would not debate Hillary Clinton before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on May 6th, but insisted he’s not “ducking” a debate with Clinton.

The candidates have met 21 times to debate during the course of this primary contest; the last one in Philadelphia focused heavily on Obama’s campaign gaffes, which prompted him to note the next day during a North Carolina town hall, “It took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.” Obama also said it was typical Washington. “They like stirring up controversy and they like playing gotcha games, and getting us to attack each other. And I have to say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” he said at the time.

Clinton said he was “complaining” - not so, Obama said. “Did you hear me complain?” he asked a reporter looking for a response. “Who’s been complaining about the media for the last six months?”

But Obama never responded to a CBS News offer to debate Clinton again in North Carolina on the 27th. When asked about it by a Raleigh voter, Obama replied, “We’re trying to figure out what our schedule looks like. But, I’ll be honest with you, you know we now had 21…I could deliver Senator Clinton’s lines, she could, I’m sure, deliver mine, so what we’ve got to figure out how we fit in campaigning actively both here in North Carolina and Indiana…we’re just trying to figure what’s the best way to reach as many constituents as possible in a relatively short period of time.”

CBS News has since cancelled the debate, but Senator Clinton has repeatedly challenged Obama to debate prior to the May 6th primaries. In the past, Obama has said the more time he spends with voters, the better they get to know him, and when you’re competing against the “Clinton brand,” that’s important.

Read the Wallace/Obama exchange below the jump.

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JACKSONVILLE, NC — Hillary Clinton stepped up the pressure on her Democratic rival to agree to a new round of one-on-one debates before the May 6th primaries — accusing Barack Obama of ducking her in North Carolina.

Telling the crowd that she’s answered some 14,000 questions from North Carolinians as part of her “NC Ask Me” ad campaign, Clinton said “the only question I can’t answer is why Senator Obama won’t debate me in North Carolina.”

“I said I’ll go anywhere, any time to have a debate,” she said.

Flanked by retired admirals and generals outside a fire station in the shadows of Camp Lejeune, Sen Clinton wrapped up her military-themed event with a plea for help — but couldn’t resist yet another debate dig. “I know I have an uphill struggle here in North Carolina, but i feel good,” she said.

“If you do have questions, go to the NC Ask Me website. ask your questions. Ask why Senator Obama won’t debate me, and let’s work to try to find a time and a place where that can take place.”

An Obama aide points out that he did agree to a time and a place for a North Carolina debate — accepting an invitation to a CBS forum set for April 19th. It was Senator Clinton who declined that invitation since, she said, the date fell on the second day of Passover.

Clinton’s explicit argument is that the issues they debated in Pennsylvania differ from the issues voters in Indiana and North Carolina face every day, and deserve to be discussed. But implicit in her debate push is the recognition that forcing another poor debate performance out of Obama is one of the only avenues still available for Clinton to wrest the nomination away from the frontrunner.

With the campaign facing a cash crunch even after their $10 million day on Wednesday, reaching 11 million people as she did in the Philadelphia debate without spending a penny is also an attractive proposition.