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Journalism of Courage
Democratic US presidential candidate Barack Obama battled to refocus his campaign on Iraq and the economy after a week in which he was clobbered over incendiary remarks by his longtime Chicago pastor.
Obama was expected to end his rough week on a good note Friday, however, when former presidential candidate and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was to endorse him. The Associated Press has learned that Richardson will appear with Obama at a campaign event in Portland, Oregon.
Obama leads among delegates selected at primaries and caucuses, but national public opinion polls show Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pulling ahead of him amid controversy over statements by Rev Jeremiah Wright.
Richardson has been relentlessly wooed by Obama and Clinton for his endorsement. His endorsement also could help Obama pick up support among Hispanics, who are America’s largest and fastest-growing minority group, and have largely voted for Clinton. On Thursday, Clinton blasted away on the war and economy as well, while pressing demands to reinstate delegates in Michigan and Florida. Clinton won both contests, but the national Democratic party said they would not be counted because the state votes were held too early and violated party rules. Obama was not even on the Michigan ballot.
The bruising nomination fight threatens Democratic unity in the historic race to replace the unpopular President George W Bush. Some Democrats fear that a clear shot at victory for the party has been encumbered by the continued need for record-breaking campaign spending and the bickering between the Obama and Clinton camps that has allowed John McCain, the Arizona senator who is the Republican nominee-in-waiting, to largely remain above the fray.
It was a particularly troubled week for Obama. Last week, the national Gallup poll had him leading Clinton 50 per cent to 44 per cent in a survey conducted March 11-13, but Clinton has since taken over the lead. Gallup now shows Clinton ahead of Obama 48 per cent to 43 per cent, according to voters questioned from March 17-19, at the height of the controversy.
Portions of Wright’s sermons blamed the US for bringing the September 11 attacks on itself and declared that God should damn America for racial bigotry.
In a week that marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, Clinton and Obama gave major speeches restating their plans to end the conflict quickly, and linked the war with the slumping economy.
In West Virginia on Thursday, Obama delivered what he billed as a major address on Iraq, declaring that vast spending to sustain the American military effort was responsible for American economic woes.
