Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have turned up the rhetoric in their increasingly heated presidential primary battle.
Senator Clinton issued a new debate challenge while Senator Obama complained of a race that has largely been reduced to trivia while working families feel economic pain.
Senator Hillary Clinton addresses supporters a baseball stadium in South Bend,
Mrs Clinton took the debate dispute to a new level, challenging Mr Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator.
"Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions, we'll set whatever rules seem fair," Mrs Clinton said yesterday while campaigning in South Bend, Indiana.
Her campaign made the offer formal with a letter to the Obama campaign, who responded by saying the two candidates has already debated 21 times.
"Over the next 10 days we believe it's important to talk directly to the voters of Indiana and North Carolina," said Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Trailing in delegates and the popular vote, Mrs Clinton has been stepping up the pressure on Mr Obama for more debates in advance of primaries in nine days in Indiana and North Carolina. She argued that he won't debate because he's unhappy with questions from TV moderators during the April 16th debate just before
the Pennsylvania primary. After that debate, Mr Obama complained it focused too much on political trivia and too little on real issues.
On the campaign trail yesterday, he sounded much the same theme.
"If you watched the last few weeks of this campaign, you'd think that all politics is about is negative ads and bickering and arguing, gaffes and sideline issues," Mr Obama said at a town hall meeting in the industrial city of Anderson, Indiana. "There's no serious discussion about how to bring jobs back to Anderson."
The next round of primaries in the contest for the Democratic nomination comes May 6th when Democrats in Indiana and North Carolina go to the polls. Mr Obama is favoured in North Carolina, but the polls have shown the race in Indiana far too close to call.
The North Carolina primary offers 115 national convention delegates, the largest prize among the nine contests remaining. Indiana has 72 delegates available.
In the overall race for the Democratic Party nomination, Mr Obama leads with 1,724.5 delegates, including superdelegates - unelected party officials who can vote as they please. Mrs Clinton had 1,593.5, according to an AP tally. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.