Clinton scolds McCain for opposing farm bill

As she chatted up rural South Dakotans, Clinton largely ignored Democratic rival Barack Obama, who continued to gain ground in delegates needed to clinch the nomination and who picked up a sought-after endorsement from former Sen. John Edwards this week.

Clinton noted that President Bush has said he will veto the farm bill, which Congress passed Thursday, and McCain has also said he would veto the bill if he were president.

"They're like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to much change, does it?" the New York senator said. "I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America."

Bush and McCain both say the bill, which boosts farm subsidies and includes more money for food stamps, is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers.

"When Bear Stearns needed assistance, we stepped in with a $30 billion package. But when our farmers need help, all they get from Senator McCain and President Bush a veto threat," Clinton said.

Obama applauded passage of the bill in a statement released by his campaign, saying the measure was "far from perfect," but "with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good."

The Illinois senator also chided McCain and Bush for "saying no to Americas farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people."

Clinton chose South Dakota for her first campaign appearance since her West Virginia win this week, signaling that she is sticking around until the final primaries on June 3 despite call from some Democrats to close ranks behind Obama. The midwestern state, along with Montana, votes that day -the finish line on the primary calendar.

"There are a lot of people who say, 'Well we should just wrap this up,'" Clinton told several hundred South Dakotans while standing on the porch of a fourth-generation family farmhouse in Bath. "Well I've never been impatient with democracy."