WASHINGTON -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today called on Hillary Rodham Clinton to drop out of the presidential race, saying there is no way the New York senator can wrest the nomination from her rival Barack Obama.
"There is no way that Sen. Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination," Leahy, an Obama supporter, said in an interview with Vermont Public Radio this morning. "She ought to withdraw, and she ought to be backing Sen. Obama."
Saying Republican John McCain "has been making one gaffe after another
is getting a free ride," Leahy said the sniping between Democrats hurts them more than anything the Arizona senator has thrown their way.
Leahy was the first prominent superdelegate to call on the New York senator to withdraw, but his comments came on the same day that Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged superdelegates to make their preferences public.
"There's 800 of them, and 450 have already said who they're for," Dean said on CBS' "Early Show." "I'd like the other 350 to say who they're for at some point between now and the first of July so we don't have to take this into the convention."
Dean said he had warned both Obama and Clinton to avoid personal attacks that could damp voter turnout in the general election and douse Democrats' hopes of winning the White House.
"Personal attacks now often do have the seeds of demoralization later on," he said. "So I want to make sure this campaign stays on the high ground." Asked whether he had conveyed this message to the candidates and their campaign staffs, "I have done both ... I have good relationships with both candidates, and I think they would both be excellent presidents."
Clinton's campaign, in a fundraising e-mail to supporters today, noted a pattern to calls for her to withdraw.
"Every time our campaign demonstrates its strength and resilience, people start to suggest we should end our pursuit of the Democratic nomination," said the note, which made no mention of Leahy. "Those anxious to force us to the sidelines aren't doing it because they think we're going to lose the upcoming primaries. The fact is, they're reading the same polls we are, and they know we are in a position to win."
With the two senators battling for support from voters and superdelegates in the coming primaries, Obama picked up a new endorsement today from an unexpected source: Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who had earlier said he would stay neutral until Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
"In a time of danger around the world and division here at home, Barack Obama can lead us.... He can help us heal America," Casey said at a rally at the University of Pittsburgh. Referring to the blistering campaign by Clinton, Casey said that Obama was tough, "especially under fire," and that the Illinois senator "has the kind of judgment that is steady in the eye of the storm. He's the kind of leader who's ready to be commander in chief."
As the Democrats slugged it out in a primary season that most political observers thought would already be wrapped up, McCain, who has already wrapped up the Republican nomination, unveiled his first general election ad. To be aired for now only in New Mexico, the biographical campaign spot chronicles his military service and calls him "the American president Americans have been waiting for."
johanna.neuman@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign29mar29,1,5231582.story
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