Phoenix ? Rallying in the west with an all-star cast including Caroline Kennedy, Barack Obama on Wednesday sharpened his criticism of Hillary Rodham Clinton as a divisive, old-school politician as they emerged as the two remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination.

As speculation swirled over whether he would receive the endorsement of John Edwards, who had just withdrawn from the contest, Obama turned up the heat by casting Clinton as scarcely different from GOP presidential aspirants, particularly comeback candidate John McCain.

“There are those who will tell us that our party should nominate someone who is more practiced in the art of power, that it’s not yet our turn or our time,” Obama told a cheering crowd of 9,500 at a University of Denver arena in Colorado, with thousands more in overflow areas.

Doing so, he argued, would “simply build a bridge back to the 20th century” rather than end “do-anything, say-anything, divisive politics.” Bill Clinton as president had pledged to be a bridge to the 21st century.

Hillary Clinton shot back by stealing one of Obama’s own slogans. “That certainly sounds audacious, but not hopeful … and it’s not what we should be talking about in this campaign,” she told The Associated Press. Obama’s autobiography is titled “The Audacity of Hope.”

Obama took special aim at his rival’s foreign policy, including her initial vote authorizing the Iraq war, which he had condemned from the start.

“The way to win a debate with John McCain or any Republican who is nominated is not by having the Democrats nominate someone who agreed with them on the war in Iraq,” he said in Denver, which hosts the Democratic National Convention this summer.

If Clinton differs from McCain, he said, it was by “arguing for exceptions for torture before changing positions when the politics of the moment changed.”

Naming McCain was one of several direct appeals Obama made Wednesday to moderate Republicans and independents – voters he hopes will defect to him over such issues as the Iraq war in Tuesday’s 22 state primaries or caucuses.

Though Obama has clashed with Edwards, in Denver he hailed the man whose endorsement he covets for “fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling.”