HILLARY & OBAMA MARCH ON SELMA

By MICHAEL SCHOLL, Additional reporting by Mark BULLIET
SPIRIT OF '65: To mark Martin Luther King's 1965 march, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - with hubby Bill - are all in Selma today.
March 4, 2007 -- First Hollywood. Now Selma.

The increasingly bitter dueling campaigns of Democratic nominee wannabes Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, after weeks of shadowboxing, take the prize fight to the heart of the South today.

There's plenty to fight for.

With polls showing Obama making big inroads at the polls, the senator from New York is bringing out the big gun - husband Bill, once dubbed "America's first black president" by author Toni Morrison.

Both Clinton and Obama are set to give nearly simultaneous speeches behind church pulpits just a half-block apart today in Selma, Ala. - as they show up at events to commemorate the bloody 1965 civil rights march that helped roll back segregation in the South.

It is a battle to win the hearts and minds of black voters, a group that makes up nearly one-quarter of the nationwide Democratic primary electorate.

In Harlem yesterday, the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton noted the race is far from decided.

"It's going to be an open fight," said Sharpton, who also plans on attending events in Selma today. "I think a lot of blacks will be proud of Obama, but he'll have to take positions that make them vote for him. [Clinton] signals she's not conceding it by going to Selma."

Jackson said there'd be "keen competition" for the black vote and the Latino vote as well.

"But the black vote has never been for blacks only," he said. "The fact that Bill and Hillary and Barack are going [to Selma] means nobody thinks they inherit that vote, or takes it for granted. It must be earned. At this stage of campaigning, it's almost a beauty contest."

Clinton and Obama have also battled for the deep pockets of Tinseltown titans - another friendly crowd for liberal Dems.

Mogul David Geffen, with pals Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, recently raised about $1.3 million for Obama, but also set tempers aflame by characterizing former Hollywood darling Hillary as "another incredibly polarizing figure."