Edwards backs 'bold' Obama

Barack Obama won the support of former presidential candidate John Edwards as he shrugged off a landslide victory by rival Hillary Clinton in West Virginia.

Mr Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee, dropped out of the race in late January and his endorsement was seen as a major boost for Mr Obama.

It was a clear sign that the former first lady’s landslide victory in the Mountain State has had little effect on the prolonged battle for the presidential nomination.

Earlier, the young Illinois senator also continued to attract the support of the Democratic Party’s so-called superdelegates, the senior Democrats and party officials who will decide the presidential nominee.

Speaking at an Obama rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan last night, Mr Edwards said: “The reason I am here tonight is because the Democratic voters in America have made their choice and so have I.

“There is one man who knows and understands that this is the time for bold leadership.There is one man that knows how create the lasting change that you have to build from the ground up.

“There is one man that knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two. And that man is Barack Obama.”

He added: “This is not going to be easy, it’s going to be the fight of our lives.

“But we’re ready because we know this election is going to be about something bigger than the tired old hateful politics of the past.

“This election is about taking down these walls that divide us so that we can see what’s possible – that one America that we can build together.”

Mr Edwards, 54, said he had got to know the “two amazing candidates” in the Democratic race “very well”, urged unity and said the party would soon have its nominee.

He was introduced by Mr Obama as a “special” treat for supporters in Michigan and “one of the greatest leaders we have in the Democratic Party”.

In a statement to reporters, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said: “We respect John Edwards, but as the voters of West Virginia showed, this thing is far from over.”

Mr Obama has already moved his attention from the remaining states of the primary season to November’s general election against Republican John McCain.

On the campaign trail in Michigan, he pledged to pump an extra 200 million US dollars (£100m) a year into efforts to revitalise the country’s manufacturing sector and sought to link Mr McCain with President George Bush’s economic policies.

Mr Obama also told supporters that the 71-year-old Arizona senator was wrong when he suggested that there was no way to replace jobs that had been lost with new ones.

The Democratic Party’s frontrunner also won the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a leading abortion rights advocacy organisation.

Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton planned to meet members of her finance committee as it emerged her campaign was facing more than 20 million US dollars (£10m) in debt.

After her resounding victory, the 60-year-old New York senator made another appeal for funds to keep her campaign alive.

“We are in the home stretch, there are only three weeks left,” she said.

Speaking at her campaign headquarters in Charleston, West Virginia, Mrs Clinton said: “Like the song says, ’It’s almost heaven’.

“You know I’ll never give up. I’ll keep on coming back and I’ll stand with you as long as you stand with me.”

Her victory appeared to have little impact on the nominating contest, but did highlight the difficulties faced by her rival in attracting the support of white blue-collar workers.

Three-quarters of white voters without college degrees backed Mrs Clinton and they made up nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters.

After the West Virginia results, Mr Obama now has 1,886 delegates compared with Mrs Clinton’s 1,718, the latest Associated Press figures showed.

And he has picked up more than 30 superdelegates in the past week – more than the 20 delegates Mrs Clinton won in West Virginia.

Mrs Clinton’s best chance of success will come if the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel, which meets on May 31, allows proposals to seat delegates that were stripped from Florida and Michigan after they violated party rules by holding their primaries too early.

If the delegates are reinstated that would increase the number of delegates needed to get the nomination from 2,025 to 2,209, giving her more time.

However, even under the best scenario for Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama would still lead by about 100 delegates, with fewer than 250 superdelegates left to declare their support.