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HILLARY ON A ‘ROCKY’ ROAD

Hillary Rodham Clinton invoked the ultimate underdog yesterday as she likened herself to Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” and declared that like the comeback pugilist, she’s no quitter.

“Let me tell you something; when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common,” Clinton told an AFL-CIO meeting in Philadelphia, where the Oscar-winning fight flick was set.

“I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” added Clinton, who has been resisting calls by some prominent Democrats to give up her fight against front-runner Barack Obama.

Invoking the iconic scene where Rocky runs up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Clinton said that if she quit before the final bell, it would be as though Rocky “had gotten halfway up those art-museum steps and said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough.’ ”

But there’s a problem with her analogy: a bloodied Rocky went the distance in his first title bout, but lost.

And Stallone, his alter ego and creator, is backing presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.

A spokeswoman for Stallone yesterday declined comment.

But in January, Stallone, who also played silver-screen renegade American war hero “Rambo,” commented to Fox News about former Vietnam POW McCain.

“The script that’s being written and the reality is pretty brutal and pretty hard-edged like a rough action film, and you need somebody who’s been in that to deal with it,” he said.

Clinton’s underdog comparison comes at a time she’s had to resist increasing calls from Obama supporters to drop out – although Obama himself has said she should stay in, and yesterday suggested her campaign has flogged that point for all it’s worth.

Clinton insisted she’s the only one who can successfully battle McCain and the GOP in the fall.

“The Republicans aren’t going to give up without a fight,” she said.

The Republican National Committee blasted back.

“Sen. Clinton’s frantic attempt to change the spotlight away from the troublesome battle within the Democratic Party is no reason to attack Sen. McCain,” an RNC spokesman said in a statement.

Clinton told the labor group that despite some contradictory evidence, she was always against the union-loathed NAFTA trade agreement even as her husband as president helped push it through Congress.

“I did speak out and oppose NAFTA,” she insisted. “I raised a big yellow flag and said, ‘I don’t think this will work.’ ”

Later, she told reporters, “I was in many meetings starting in the ’92 campaign – I raised questions.”

“I did it in the White House again, in meetings with as many different audiences in the White House in the decision-making process that I could speak to. But the president made a decision. As part of an administration, I believe you support the president, and I did.”

Obama has argued that Hillary is trying to claim credit for the positive aspects of the Clinton administration while distancing herself from the controversial ones.

Also yesterday, embattled Clinton booster Geraldine Ferraro again stuck to her guns on her suggestion that Obama owes a large part of his campaign success to his skin color.

“What else would you credit it to?” she asked a Post reporter after an event before an East Side rabbinical organization.

“Is he so close in this race because he’s the most experienced candidate, the strongest on the issues? Why is he there instead of Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson?

“John Edwards must have been shocked to wake up and realize that for the first time in 200 years, being a white man was a disadvantage,” she added.

Ferraro quit her formal role with the Clinton campaign after her initial remarks last month.

Additional reporting by John Mazor and Post Wire Services

maggie.haberman@nypost.com