May 10, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429

WASHINGTON, May 9: Barack Obama’s White House drive picked up pace on Friday with more superdelegates rallying to his side, including the head of a leading union, as former rival John Edwards all but endorsed his campaign.

Since Obama’s convincing win in North Carolina on Tuesday over rival Hillary Clinton and their photo-finish finale in Indiana, nine more of the Democratic Party elite with free votes on the nomination contest have swung over to the Illinois senator. The trickle of support is predicted to turn into a flood, with only six primaries now left in their marathon battle to carry the party’s flag into the November presidential elections against Republican John McCain.

Edwards, who dropped out of the close race in late January, stopped short of endorsing Obama on Friday, but said he has virtually wrapped up the contest, ahead of the last primaries on June 3.

“Let’s just assume that Barack is the nominee because it’s headed in that direction,” he told NBC television.

He added he thought Obama, who is on a historic quest to be the country’s first black president, also had a “better chance” to beat McCain.

While the former first lady had fought a good campaign, “the problem is the numbers,” Edwards said, referring to the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.

Clinton, who is also seeking to make history by being the first woman elected to the Oval Office, trails behind Obama in the number of pledged delegates to the party’s nominating convention in August.

And while she still holds the lead in the number of superdelegates, whose vote will be decisive in who wins the party nomination, Obama is hot on her heels.

Independent pollsters RealClearPolitics.com on Friday put Obama ahead with 1,854 delegates, including 265 superdelegates, compared to 1,696 for Clinton, who has pocketed some 272 superdelegates.

That leaves more than 250 superdelegates still uncommitted, at least publicly.

In a further blow to Clinton’s White House hopes, another one of the party grandees defected from her side on Friday.

“After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and needs,” Congressman Donald Payne told the Newark Star-Ledger.

And three other superdelegates also came out for Obama.

His campaign announced that Ed Espinoza, a Democratic National Committee member from California, was backing Obama, while The Oregonian reported that Representative Peter Defazio pledged his support to him.

Obama also picked up the support of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some 600,000 government workers, and its president John Gage, who is also a superdelegate.

“Our people were impressed by the vitality, enthusiasm and broad-reaching campaign of Senator Obama,” Gage said, adding he had also been impressed by Obama’s grass roots, high-tech organisation.

“We think the country needs change and we think now is the time.”He admitted it been an “excruciatingly hard” decision, but hoped the union’s backing would help sway others and bring the party’s longest ever nominating race to a swift end.

Clinton, however, has vowed no surrender and plunged straight back into campaigning before the May 13 primary in West Virginia, where she is favoured in polls. On Friday she was in Oregon, which will hold its primary along with Kentucky on May 20.

Obama has said he could declare victory after the May 20 primaries which may put him over the top, in terms of elected delegates.

In that event, “we can make a pretty strong claim that we have got the most runs and it’s the ninth inning and we have won,” Obama said on Thursday, using a baseball analogy.

In another sign of his growing stature, Obama was mobbed by Democratic lawmakers during an unannounced visit to Congress on Thursday.

At least 10 superdelegates escorted him out of one meeting, jostling to get into the camera shot with him, despite not having publicly announced their support.—AFP