Obama tries to wrest Clinton's blue-collar base in Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AFP) — US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday stepped up efforts to wrest away his rival Hillary Clinton's blue-collar base amid heightening fears about the country's sagging economy.
Obama was at the beginning of a six-day foray into Pennsylvania, a Clinton stronghold, as Democratic Party angst mounted over fallout from their fierce White House race.
As Obama set course for the northeastern state's nominating contest on April 22, Democratic chief Howard Dean warned both sides that whoever loses their testy battle must fall in line behind the winner to unite the party.
But a top Obama backer, Senator Patrick Leahy, said there was no way Clinton could win, and she should fold her effort and allow Obama to take on presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
Obama started a meandering bus tour here by snapping up the endorsement of Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, who hails from a prominent political dynasty and is popular among blue-collar voters with whom Obama has sometimes struggled to connect.
"His battle and his life's work to help people is our battle here in Pennsylvania," Casey said, as he appeared with the Illinois senator here.
"He started this campaign as an underdog, but he knows what it's like to be a fighter" Casey said, billing Obama as uniquely positioned to help fight economic woes gripping manufacturing industry in the northeastern state.
Obama trails Clinton by double digits in most polls in Pennsylvania, despite leading her in pledged delegates, nominating contest victories and the popular vote nationally.
His aides however believe Obama manages to reduce Clinton leads when he has time to spend in a state, and believe even a narrow loss which confounds expectations of a Clinton landslide could be spun as a victory.
"We win if we lose by only five points," said an Obama staffer on condition of anonymity.
Clinton, campaigning in Indiana on Friday, needs a big win in Pennsylvania to boost her argument that only she can win big states that Democrats must secure to recapture the White House in November.
Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, warned Obama and Clinton must not rip the party apart, and tried to head off a divisive convention fight.
"Somebody's going to lose this race with 49.8 percent of the vote, and that person has got to pull their supporters in behind the nominee," Dean told CBS.
"That's our obligation. Because in the end this is not about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it's about our country."
Dean also said he favored a solution which would see party graybeards, or superdelegates, effectively crown the nominee long before the Democratic convention in August in Denver.
"I think there's 800 of them and 450 of them have already said who they're for. I'd like the other 350 to say who they're on between now and the 1st of July so we don't have to take this into the convention."
Obama echoed the view during a rally in Pennsylvania, pointing out that the primary race is like "a good movie that lasted about a half an hour too long."
Neither Clinton nor Obama can reach the magic number of 2,025 delegates necessary to wrap up the nomination, so the choice of superdelegates will be decisive.
Leahy said on Vermont Public Radio that "there is no way that Senator Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination."
"She ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama. Now, obviously that's a decision that only she can make," Leahy said.
Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer accused Obama's team of trying to shut down the nominating battle before all Democrats had a chance to vote.
"The Obama campaign clearly thinks Senator Clinton can win and is trying to end this race before more people vote," Singer said.
As the Democrats squabbled, McCain cranked up the pace of his general election effort, debuting a campaign ad stressing his military heroism and incarceration during the Vietnam war.
"The American president Americans have been waiting for," says the narrator in the ad, which includes film of navy pilot McCain being asked for his military identification number "624787" as he lies wounded after being shot down in 1967.
The advertisement was the latest sign that the 71-year-old Arizona senator, who strongly backs the Iraq war, wants to make November's general election about who can best keep Americans safe.
