"We have a real choice to make," Obama said at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands, where he filled about a third of the seats for a rally where he appeared with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the New York Times reported. "It is a choice, not between black and white, not between genders and regions or religions, but a choice between the past and the future. And if I'm running against John McCain, I want to be making the argument for the future, not for the past. I want to be going forwards, not backwards."

Originally, it was Obama himself who was going to campaign in Utah. But he canceled plans to hold a rally in Salt Lake City last Saturday after the funeral for the late LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley was set for the same day. Just days before President Hinckley's death on Jan. 27, a meeting between Barack Obama and the LDS Church's First Presidency was scheduled during what would have been the candidate's second visit to the Beehive State. Several hundred Utahns turned out last August to hear Obama speak at a hastily organized rally held outside Park City, where later that day he collected some $250,000 at a private fundraiser.

Clinton vied for Utahns' attention Monday night by answering questions from voters in 22 states via a satellite town hall event broadcast on the Hallmark Channel and on the senator's Web site, where visitors submitted more than 50,000 questions.

Clinton spoke on topics from gay marriage ("a decision best left to the states") to universal health care ("the morally right thing to do, the economical thing to do").

With each response, applause filled the Salt Lake City Council Chambers, where about 60 people gathered to hear the candidate speak.

A nervous Breanne Miller, a University of Utah law student with a Spanish degree, asked the senator how she planned to balance national security with immigration issues.

"We can be faithful to our immigrant heritage and respect the rule of law," Clinton responded. "We need to tighten border security, ... but we also need to bring people out of the shadows and register them."

Miller, who had decided to vote for Clinton prior to Monday's event, said the response reaffirmed her decision.

Earlier in the day, Clinton took aim at Obama during a rally held in Worcester, Mass. "You know, change is hard," she said, in a swipe at Obama's frequent campaign message, the Associated Press reported. "I wish all you had to do was just say it's going to happen and it'll materialize. But it's going to take hard work. It's going to take every one of us."

The latest Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows Obama leading Clinton 53 percent to 29 percent among Utah Democrats likely to vote in today's primary.

The poll, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates Jan. 28-31, also found that a majority of Utahns have a high interest in today's presidential primary. Only 3 percent of Republicans and Democrats said they had a low interest in the election.

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Contributing: Aaron Falk

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com