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BATH, S.D. (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded John McCain Thursday for opposing the farm bill, attempting to maintain the sense that she is already competing against the certain Republican presidential nominee even as her chances of winning the Democratic nomination dim.

As she chatted up rural South Dakotans, Clinton largely ignored Democratic rival Barack Obama, who continued to gain ground in delegates needed to clinch the nomination and picked up a sought-after endorsement from former Sen. John Edwards this week.

Clinton noted that President Bush has said he will veto the farm bill, which Congress passed Thursday. McCain, a senator from Arizona, also has said he would veto the bill if he were president.

''They're like two sides of the same coin, and it doesn't amount to much change, does it?'' the New York senator said. ''I believe saying no to the farm bill is saying no to rural America.''

Bush and McCain both say the bill, which boosts farm subsidies and includes more money for food stamps, is fiscally irresponsible and too generous to wealthy corporate farmers.

''When Bear Stearns needed assistance, we stepped in with a $30 billion package. But when our farmers need help, all they get from Senator McCain and President Bush is a veto threat,'' Clinton said.

McCain, in a statement issued by his Senate office, said he recognized that ''attempts will be made to use my opposition to this bill for another's political gain'' but the ''American people deserve to know the truth'' about the bill and why he does not support it.

''It's a bloated piece of legislation that will do more harm than good for most farmers and consumers,'' he said.

Obama applauded the bill's passage in a statement released by his campaign, saying the measure was ''far from perfect,'' but ''with so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good.''

The Illinois senator also chided McCain and Bush for ''saying no to America's farmers and ranchers, no to energy independence, no to the environment, and no to millions of hungry people.''

Clinton chose South Dakota for her first campaign appearance since her West Virginia win earlier this week, signaling that she is sticking around until the final primaries on June 3 despite call from some Democrats to close ranks behind Obama. South Dakota and Montana vote that day -- the finish line on the primary calendar.

''There are a lot of people who say, 'Well we should just wrap this up,''' Clinton told several hundred South Dakotans while standing on the porch of a fourth-generation family farmhouse in Bath. ''Well I've never been impatient with democracy.''

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, husband Bill Clinton urged voters to ignore those who say Obama will be the nominee. Kentucky holds its presidential primary on Tuesday.

''Your voice still counts,'' the former president said. ''They've tried to bury her more times than a cat has lives.''

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