Clinton strolls for Pennsylvania blue-collar votes

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a stroll on Sunday, but the crowds lining the sidewalks and jamming the porches of a blue-collar neighborhood in Pennsylvania made it anything but casual.

Clinton, eager to show her rapport with small-town voters in a less structured campaign setting, went door-to-door on a Scranton street to talk with supporters -- trailed every step of the way by a crush of media, Secret Service agents and sport-utility vehicles from her motorcade.

"I need your help," Clinton told supporters who crowded the sidewalk and shouted for her attention as she posed for pictures and signed autographs.

The walk, repeated later in the day in a suburb of Philadelphia, was designed to offer a contrast with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama amid the furor over his comments describing small-town residents as embittered by their economic struggles.

The controversy could boost Clinton's chances in Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22 and is the next battleground in her duel with Obama to be the Democratic nominee to face Republican John McCain in November's presidential election.

The state is dotted with small blue-collar towns like Scranton, where Clinton's father grew up. The New York senator, who along with her husband former President Bill Clinton earned $109 million in the last eight years, has pushed to capitalize on the furor by emphasizing her middle-class upbringing.

A crowd of several hundred people lined the street in Scranton to see Clinton. One resident held a sign that read "Small Towns Need You."

"You're doing a good job," Cynthia Catalano assured Clinton when she greeted her on the porch of her parents' house. Her parents, Accursio and Francesca Leo, also chatted with Clinton.

"We're proud to be in Pennsylvania and we'd love to see her win here," Catalano said afterward.

A man who said he was a Republican and a fan of conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh told Clinton he supported her because he needed health insurance and thought she could get universal coverage approved.

"I'll do my best for you," Clinton told the man, who would not give his name to reporters.

"I just think she's the best person for the job," said Esther Hallock, a cook in Scranton who wished Clinton good luck.

'MIDDLE CLASS VALUES'

The Scranton walk was the latest in a series of events focused on appealing to workers and blue-collar voters that Clinton has conducted since the controversy over Obama's comments erupted on Friday.

She ended a round of tours of manufacturing plants in Indiana on Saturday with a stop in a restaurant, where she talked with patrons and drank a beer and a shot of Crown Royal whisky with two local mayors.