Barack Obama was
picking up momentum in a tight Democratic race, as he
got the support of an influential backer of rival Hillary
Rodham Clinton's and another prominent civil rights
leader and lawmaker openly discussed a switch.
Obama also was
likely to win one of the most coveted endorsements in
organized labor Friday, that of the Service Employees
International Union. Clinton notched a minor but
much-needed victory of her own, winning the popular
vote in New Mexico's caucuses Thursday.
On the Republican
side, John McCain took a major step toward winning
support of wary conservatives in his party by getting the
endorsement of Mitt Romney, his former chief rival and
bitter critic in a tense presidential nomination
battle.
McCain has been
the presumptive Republican nominee since Romney, a
millionaire former venture capitalist, dropped out of the
race a week ago. Despite McCain's wide lead in the
delegate count, he has struggled to win over the
party's core conservative and evangelical Christian base
-- a voting bloc that has so far sided more with
preacher-turned-politician Mike Huckabee.
Romney, a former
Massachusetts governor, endorsed McCain on Thursday and
asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the
veteran Arizona senator and former prisoner of war.
''Even when the
contest was close and our disagreements were debated, the
caliber of the man was apparent,'' Romney said, as McCain
stood next to him.
Romney's nod of
support capped a bitter yearlong rivalry between the men
over the party's nomination. Romney cast McCain as outside
of the Republican conservative mainstream and a
Washington insider who contributed to the problems
plaguing a broken system. McCain argued that Romney's
reversals on several issues showed a willingness to change
his positions to fit his political goals.
The additional
delegates, assuming all back McCain, would put the former
Vietnam prisoner-of-war just 63 shy of the 1,191 needed to
clinch the party's nomination. He now has 851 to
Huckabee's 242. Romney had collected 277 delegates.
Romney will not
be able to simply hand over his delegates. Many are from
caucus states that will not select the actual delegates
until state conventions this spring. Those delegates
will be selected by people who supported Romney in the
initial caucuses; the direction they go depends on
whether they follow Romney's lead in endorsing McCain.
Clinton faced
difficulties of a different sort. With added momentum from
his string of eight victories since Saturday, Obama has a
good opportunity to take weekend primaries in
Wisconsin and Hawaii, his native state.
He secured two
endorsements Thursday and was expected to win another
Friday. Former Republican senator Lincoln Chafee, now an
independent, endorsed Obama. Also, the United Food and
Commercial Workers, a politically active union with
significant membership in the upcoming Democratic
battlegrounds of Texas and Ohio on March 4, threw its
support behind him.
On Friday, he is
likely to win the backing of the Service Employees
International Union, the AP has learned. The 1.8
million-member union would only say that officials
will make a major political announcement Friday.
Even as she
rallied to halt Obama's momentum, highlighting her economic
policies while portraying him as more flash than substance,
Clinton endured another blow as one of her
superdelegates -- congressional leaders who are free
to decide for whom they will vote -- switched sides.
Rep. David
Scott's defection and remarks by Rep. John Lewis, a
prominent lawmaker and civil rights leader, highlight
the difficulty Clinton faces in a campaign that pits a
black man against a woman for a historic nomination.
''You've got to
represent the wishes of your constituency,'' Scott told
the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in the U.S.
Capitol. The lawmaker represents a district that gave
more than 80 percent of its vote to Obama in the
February 5 Georgia primary.
Lewis, whose
Atlanta-area district voted 3 to 1 for Obama, told The
New York Times for Friday editions that he was
also switching sides.
''Something is
happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to
make that great leap,'' he told the newspaper.
Clinton's one
victory of late came Thursday when days of tallying ballots
following the February 5 contest in New Mexico showed she
won the popular vote there. The triumph brought with
it just one delegate, raising her overall tally to
1,220 to Obama's 1,276.
The news injects
some energy in her apparently faltering campaign before
the must-win contests in Texas and Ohio.
A poll released
Thursday said that Clinton leads Obama in Ohio 55% to
34%, with an almost 2-to-1 lead in the state among white
voters, and almost as big an advantage with women and
voters age 45 and older. In Pennsylvania, which holds
its contest April 22, Clinton had 52% to Obama's 36%.
The Quinnipiac
University polls in both states were conducted February
6-12 and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1
percentage points. (AP)
