While Democrats compete over who has the better plan to expand health care insurance to the uninsured, Republican John McCain is launching a new TV ad aimed at the rest of the country - those with insurance and paying ever higher health care costs.

McCain's new ad, being aired in Iowa, backs up his campaign tour this week pitching his proposal to control health care costs.

"The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it's the availability and the affordibility," McCain says in the ad. "And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care.

"Let's give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best."

Hillary Clinton has cut Barack Obama's North Carolina lead in half, thanks to gains among white voters, according to a new poll out Monday.

Barack Obama is certainly still the runaway favorite in North Carolina," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, which conducted the poll.

"But she's made some inroads since Pennsylvania and the race could end up closer than might have been expected."

Obama led in the weekend poll by 51-39, a 12 point margin. That's a solid lead, but Obama had led by as much as 25 points in earlier polls by the Raleigh-based firm.

A big reason Obama lost ground is that he lost support from white voters in recent days, Debnam said.

Obama had pulled to within 5 points among North Carolina whites, but dropped back to a 21-point deficit, trailing Clinton by 56-35. Whites made up 63 percent of the sample.

Obama led among blacks by a margin of 83-9. Blacks made up 33 percent of the poll sample.

The poll of 1,121 likely voters in the May 6 North Carolina Democratic primary was conducted Saturday and Sunday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Not a candidate for president? Didn't get elected as a delegate from your state? Not to worry. You still may get a seat at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

For $35, you can buy a chance to win tickets to the convention, airfare to and from Denver, and hotel accommodations from Sunday Aug. 24 through Thursday, Aug. 28.

The raffle is being run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raises money for Democratic members of the House and Democratic candidates for the House.

"Can you picture it," the committee asks in an email to supporters. "The Democratic energy...and the promise of a historic nominee who will at long last restore the promise of America's future...and you can be right there when it happens."

Of course, the fund raising pitch from Brian Wolff, the committee's executive director, doesn't mention the possibility of a political blood bath at the convention. Then again, that might raise even more interest - and money.

Hillary Clinton's solid win in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary didn't stop the calls on her to quit. A prominent supporter of Barack Obama said Tuesday that Clinton should drop out of the presidential campaign for the good of the party.

"My advice to her is to go back to the Senate and let this party spend its money and ambition on beating John McCain," said Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

"This is somebody in the 4th quarter, down by 20 points, kicking a field goal and saying we can win. She's not going to win," Harpootlian said in an interview. "All she's going to do is destroy or help destroy our party."