Candidates make last push before Super Tuesday

(CNN) -- Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls fanned out across the nation Saturday as they made their final push for votes heading up to the Super Tuesday primaries.

The candidates spoke to citizens on issues ranging from Iraq to health care and beyond.

"Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama say they want a date of withdrawal. They want to wave the white flag of surrender," Arizona Sen. John McCain, the current GOP front-runner, told a crowd of supporters in Birmingham, Alabama.

"I will never surrender to al Qaeda, my friends. We will never surrender to al Qaeda."

The McCain campaign said it believes it can defeat his chief rival for the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in Massachusetts, CNN's John King reported.

"If they want to try to stop Mitt Romney, simply beating him in the state he served as governor is one way to do it," he said. See McCain call on Americans to serve a higher cause »

McCain said Saturday that while some may say the war in Iraq is lost, he disagrees.

"We didn't lose. My friends, we are succeeding. There's parts of Baghdad, most parts of Iraq that are now safe and secure." Watch as the candidates hunt for votes »

Romney was off the campaign trail Saturday, attending a funeral in Salt Lake City, Utah, for Gordon B. Hinckley, former head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Romney is a member. But he campaigned in Colorado on Friday night.

"I can't possibly forecast at this stage what the kind of numbers I'll have coming out of Tuesday will be," Romney said during that campaign stop. "I'm hoping to do very well. There are a number of states we think we can pick up."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was also in Alabama on Saturday, speaking at a church in Tuscaloosa.

"If Congress hasn't been able to curtail their spending habits, and Washington is completely out of control on its addiction to spending, it doesn't make sense that somebody would be sent to the White House who has a Washington address," he said.

"That's why I believe that somebody who has balanced a budget every one of the 10½ years he was a governor makes a whole lot more sense if we're going to get it done. The presidency is not just a tough job, and it certainly is that -- the presidency is a sacred trust," Huckabee said.

"You are the people who are going to hire the next president. And, by the way, I would really appreciate it if you would make sure the national media doesn't get to pick the president instead of you, because they won't pick the right one."

On the Democratic side, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois -- who is locked into a tight race for the Democratic nomination with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton -- was in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon, but earlier Saturday spoke at Boise State University in Idaho. There, members of the audience brought up Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been linked to Obama's family tree.

"That was really embarrassing, when that came out," Obama said. "You know, when they do these genealogical surveys, you're hoping that you're related to somebody cool, like Paul Revere or Willie Mays or somebody. Dick Cheney, that's a let-down.

"Anyway, his name will not be on the ballot," Obama said of Cheney. "So the era of Scooter Libby justice and 'Brownie' incompetence and Karl Rove politics will finally be over next year."

Obama also touched on the economy and the war in Iraq during his speech.

In Minneapolis, "one of the things he's really going to emphasize is judgment," said CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. "It's particularly important for this audience."

Meanwhile, Clinton was in California, where she spoke at a rally in Los Angeles.

"My opponents will not commit to universal health care," she told reporters. "I do not believe we should nominate any Democrat who will not proudly stand here today, tomorrow and the next day and say universal health care is the goal."

Clinton also addressed the subprime mortgage crisis.

"You know, in the America I see, the abusive lending practices that have put so many people's homes at risk would never have been permitted in the first place. ... In the America I see over that horizon that will begin on January 20, 2009, we will have a housing policy that has affordable housing again," Clinton said.

"We will protect homeowners from unscrupulous mortgage lenders and brokers. We will have a moratorium on home foreclosures so we can help people stay in their homes, not lose their homes. And we will freeze the interest rates so they don't keep going up, throwing more and more Californians and Americans out on the streets."

Clinton also spoke about No Child Left Behind, aimed at improving standards in schools and holding schools accountable -- legislation that has been wildly unpopular with Democrats. She pledged to end the law, calling it an "unfunded mandate."

Clinton's daughter Chelsea was also scheduled to appear at Mills College in Oakland and hold a town hall-style meeting there, where she was to take questions from the audience. E-mail to a friend

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