ROSEMONT, Ill. – Three of the Democrats running for president continued to hammer away on the war in Iraq on Monday, a day after their party’s latest debate.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson each appeared separately at an annual conference of the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani also was in Chicago Monday to fundraise and do some shopping at a downtown book store where he talked to reporters. Giuliani was unable to attend Jackson’s event because of a scheduling conflict, his spokesman Jarrod Agen said.

Jackson’s event was a chance for the three Democrats – especially the lesser-knowns Richardson and Kucinich – to get more attention after Sunday’s televised debate that included a field of eight Democrats.

Kucinich was tough on Democratic leaders in Washington for continuing to fund the war. Richardson said troops should be brought home before the end of year and replaced by diplomacy. And Obama said setting a timetable for withdrawal “is supporting the troops” because it means not having them “in the midst of a civil war.”

“I don’t care whether you were for the war or against the war. We can all support the troops and we can support them by starting to bring them home,” Obama told a cheering crowd of several hundred people at a suburban Chicago hotel.

Obama recently voted against legislation to fund military operations in Iraq when a timeline for removing troops was taken out, although the measure did pass.

But Kucinich was tough on his fellow Democrats, saying leaders in Washington weren’t doing enough to end the war by cutting off funding for it. He said that was a mandate from voters in the November election.

“But instead of stopping the funding for the war, what do we get? We get a Democratic version of the war in Iraq,” he said.

Obama said later that Democrats don’t have enough votes to unilaterally cut off war funding like Kucinich wants to do.

The three candidates tackled other hot-button topics from immigration and health care to employment issues, an appeal to attendees of Monday’s event that was billed as a “labor breakfast.”

Obama said the federal minimum wage should be raised and made to keep pace with inflation. He again said he supports a bill making it easier for workers to start unions against companies’ wishes – a measure that passed in the U.S. House but Senate Republicans have sworn won’t get to the president. Obama touted some of his other domestic policies, including his health plan for insuring Americans.

Kucinich said he would cancel NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On immigration, Richardson criticized any policy that includes a border fence between the United States and Mexico by referencing the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

“I personally will tear down that wall,” Richardson said.

Later Monday, Giuliani said the fence should be part of a broader border protection plan.

“The wall is a means to an end,” he told reporters.