Dem rivals push on to N.C., Ind.

WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., in campaign stops Friday stressed the importance of next week's Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

Clinton told supporters in North Carolina that Tuesday's primaries could be "game changers" for her, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Polls indicate both races are becoming tighter for the rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, with Clinton's lead smaller in Indiana and Obama's smaller in North Carolina. The states offer the most delegates of any of the nine remaining primaries.

"We've had a rough couple of weeks," Obama told reporters, summing up the flaps over his former pastor and his own controversial remarks about "bitter" blue-collar voters as "an awful lot of noise."

"If I'm running the kind of campaign that I want to run, I think that I will prevail," he said.