Today on the Presidential Campaign Trail

McCain wants to temporarily halt federal gas tax ... Gun rights a hot topic in Pennsylvania but barely visible in Democratic presidential campaign ... Bob Johnson echoes Ferraro, says Obama wouldn't be where he is if he were white

McCain proposes break in gas taxes

PITTSBURGH (AP) _ John McCain wants the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer and ensure that college students can secure loans this fall, a pair of proposals aimed at stemming pain from the country's troubled economy.

At the same time, the certain Republican presidential nominee says Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton would impose the single largest tax increase since World War II by allowing tax cuts pushed to passage by President Bush to expire.

"Both promise big 'change.' And a trillion dollars in new taxes over the next decade would certainly fit that description," McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday. "All these tax increases are the fine print under the slogan of 'hope:' They're going to raise your taxes by thousands of dollars per year _ and they have the audacity to hope you don't mind."

That was a play on the title of an Obama book.

McCain twice voted against the very tax cuts he now supports; he says failing to extend them would amount to tax increases for millions of people.

The four-term Arizona senator was presenting his proposals _ and blistering his Democratic rivals _ in a wide-ranging economic speech at Carnegie Mellon University.

Gun rights, gun deaths divide Pa. voters

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are gingerly threading their way between two of the most politically charged numbers in Pennsylvania: the state's almost 1 million licensed hunters and Philadelphia's nearly one-a-day rate of gun murders.

Gun control arouses deep emotions here. Deadly shootings have earned the state's largest city the ominous nickname: "Killadelphia." One of the strongest antigun control groups, the National Rifle Association, has 250,000 members in Pennsylvania, more than in any other state. This month the Pennsylvania House soundly defeated a bill to require handgun owners to report the theft or loss of their guns to police.

As the state's hotly contested April 22 primary approaches, the Democratic presidential candidates have struggled to avoid alienating either side, to the point of pandering.

Unlike most members of Congress, neither senator has taken a position on the historic case before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether the District of Columbia's ban on handguns violates the Constitution's Second Amendment.

Democrats have shied away from gun control since 2000, when they blamed presidential and congressional losses in part on their aggressive stance at the time.

Clinton that year supported far-reaching measures including a federal mandate for state-issued photo gun licenses, as well as a national registry for handgun sales. Obama repeatedly backed tougher state gun controls as an Illinois lawmaker.

Such proposals have been brushed aside in favor of vague talk about "common sense" regulation and assertions by the candidates that they honor the Second Amendment.

Their ability to duck the issue may end April 16 _ the date Clinton and Obama square off in their only Pennsylvania debate.

BET founder takes on Obama, race

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ The billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television says Barack Obama would not be a leading presidential candidate if he were white and that the Illinois senator's campaign has "a hair-trigger on anything racial."

The Charlotte Observer reported on its Web site Monday that Bob Johnson, one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's top black supporters, was commenting on remarks previously made by Geraldine Ferraro, another Clinton supporter.

"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called 'Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not."

"Geraldine Ferraro said it right," Johnson added. "The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."

Ferraro, a Democratic candidate for vice president in 1984, stepped down last month as an adviser to Clinton amid controversy over comments she made to the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, Calif. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro said. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Obama campaign spokesman Dan Leistikow called Johnson's remarks "just one in a long line of absurd comments by Bob Johnson and other Clinton supporters who will say or do anything to get the nomination. The American people are tired of this and are ready to turn the page on these kind of attack politics."

Johnson, who owns the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, is a longtime friend of both Hillary Clinton and former President Clinton.

THE DEMOCRATS

Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the American Society of Newspaper Editors at a conference in Washington. Barack Obama speaks at a conference of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department in Washington before holding an event with veterans in Pennsylvania.

THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain gives a speech on the economy in Pittsburgh.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose, but the other party has made a much more damaging mistake in the failed policies they've chosen and the bankrupt philosophy that they've embraced for the last three decades." _ Barack Obama.

STAT OF THE DAY:

Male support for Democrat Barack Obama has dropped 7 points since February to 50 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll conducted last week. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton gained 10 points among men since an AP-Ipsos poll taken in late February. She is now at 42 percent.

Compiled by Ann Sanner and Jerry Estill.

Terra/AP