Hours after being
routed by Hillary Rodham Clinton in West Virginia,
Barack Obama picked up two more of the party leaders who are
key to settling the Democratic presidential
nomination.
An embattled
Clinton is urging the party leaders to take a hard look at
West Virginia, which she won with 67% of the vote. But her
victory did little if anything to knock Obama off
stride as he approaches the delegate totals needed to
give him the nomination.
It did, however,
expose in stark terms his disadvantage with blue-collar
voters, fueling Clinton's last-gasp argument to party VIPs
that she's the Democrat with broad appeal against
Republican John McCain.
''Choose who you
believe will make the strongest candidate in the fall,''
she said at her Charleston, W.Va., rally in a pitch
aimed at superdelegates. She was returning to
Washington to meet Wednesday with some of them.
''The White House
is won in the swing states,'' she said, ''and I am
winning the swing states.''
Obama isn't
ceding the latter point.
His campaign
announced his pickup Wednesday of two superdelegates: Rep.
Peter Visclosky of Indiana and Democrats Abroad chair
Christine Schon Marques.
Also endorsing
Obama Wednesday were three former Securities and Exchange
Commission chairmen -- William Donaldson, David Ruder, and
Arthur Levitt Jr., who was appointed by former
president Clinton. The campaign released a joint
statement by the former SEC chiefs, as well as former
Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, that praised
Obama's ''positive leadership and judgment'' on
economic issues.
''We are aware of
the reasoned approach Mr. Obama has taken in analyzing
the current financial crisis and the need for balanced
regulatory reform,'' the statement said. ''We believe
that such a constructive approach can be extended
broadly in the economic area as well as elsewhere.''
Obama was
campaigning Wednesday in Michigan, keenly aware of the need
to recapture the unifying promise of his earlier
primary and caucus wins, which transcended geography,
parties, and even racial divisions at times.
Specifically, he
arranged to visit workers at a Chrysler factory in
Macomb County, bellwether of bellwethers, and rally in Grand
Rapids.
''This is our
chance to build a new majority of Democrats and
independents and Republicans,'' Obama said in Missouri, a
November battleground.
Nearly a quarter
of the voters in West Virginia's primary were 60 or
older, and a similar share had no education beyond high
school, exit polls indicated. More than half were in
families with incomes of $50,000 or less, and the
former first lady was winning nearly 70% of their votes.
Clinton won 20 of
the 28 delegates at stake in West Virginia and Obama
won eight.
With the
superdelegates picked up Wednesday, that left Obama with
1,885 delegates, to 1,717 for Clinton, out of 2,026
needed to clinch the nomination at the party
convention in Denver this summer. The Democratic win
on Tuesday in a Mississippi special election increased by
one the number of delegates needed to win the
nomination.
He added a
symbolic victory Tuesday, defeating Clinton in Nebraska's
nonbinding primary by a 49% to 47% margin. Nebraska already
held caucuses three months ago and Obama locked up
most of the delegates in that contest.
Obama has picked
up about 30 superdelegates in the last week, altogether
a bigger prize than West Virginia offered either candidate
in the lopsided primary.
Superdelegates
are elected officials and other prominent Democrats who
can vote as they choose, without regard to primaries or
caucuses. About 250 have not declared their support.
Obama has tapped
the crucial superdelegate pool to considerable effect
and in the last week overcame Clinton's campaign-long
advantage with that group. They've proved resistant to
Clinton's recent entreaties, but she was trying again
Wednesday.
''This race isn't
over yet,'' she said.
The New York
senator also planned to meet members of her finance
committee. Her campaign is facing more than $20 million in
debt.
Still ahead are
five primaries, beginning next week in Kentucky and
Oregon, then Puerto Rico on June 1, and Montana and South
Dakota two days later.
Obama is favored
in Oregon and South Dakota, with Montana apparently more
competitive and the others looking solid for Clinton.
On May 31, a
convention committee will hear Clinton's appeal to seat
delegations from disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan.
Clinton wants the
delegates seated -- a decision that would cut into
Obama's advantage -- even though the primaries were held so
early in the year that they violated Democratic Party
rules.
Obama has
indicated a willingness to compromise on that matter now
that he's more confident of ultimate victory. (AP)
