Obama's bandwagon gathers speed

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama picked up momentum in the tight Democratic race today as he got the support of an influential backer of rival Hillary Clinton and another prominent civil rights leader openly discussed a switch.

Mr Obama also was likely to win one of the most coveted union endorsements that of the Service Employees International Union.

Mrs Clinton notched a minor, but much-needed victory of her own, winning the popular vote in New Mexico’s caucuses yesterday.

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.

Mr McCain has been the presumptive Republican nominee since Mr Romney, a millionaire former venture capitalist, dropped out of the race a week ago.

Despite Mr 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.

Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, endorsed Mr McCain yesterday 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 calibre of the man was apparent,” Mr Romney said.

Mr Romney’s nod of support capped a bitter year-long rivalry between the men over the party’s nomination.

The additional delegates, assuming all back Mr 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 Mr Huckabee’s 242.

Mrs Clinton faced difficulties of a different sort. With added momentum from his string of eight victories since Saturday, Mr Obama has a good opportunity to take weekend primaries in Wisconsin and Hawaii, his native state.

He secured two endorsements yesterday and was expected to win another today. Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, now an independent, endorsed him. 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.

He is also likely to win the backing of the Service Employees International Union.

Even as she rallied to halt Mr Obama’s momentum, highlighting her economic policies while portraying him as more flash than substance, Mrs Clinton endured another blow as one of her superdelegates – congressional leaders who are free to decide for whom they will vote – switched sides.

David Scott’s defection and remarks by John Lewis, a prominent civil rights leader, highlight the difficulty Mrs Clinton faces in a campaign that pits a black man against a woman for a historic nomination.