Photograph of Barack Obama with an Obama basketball jersey given to him by University of Oregon Men's basketball coach Ernie Kent, right, at a University of Oregon rally by Ryan Gardner/AP
Senator Barack Obama's campaign got a huge boost yesterday as nine superdelegates pledged support for him. Now, for the first time, Obama leads Senator Hillary Clinton in the number of superdelegates, according to the NY Times' calculations (the Times has a good graphic), while the AP says that Clinton still leads by half a superdelegate.
With Clinton's presidential hopes waning, there's debate over a Obama-Clinton ticket. Politco gives both sides (why it's nuts/not nuts) Senator Ted Kennedy doesn't think much of that paring. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, he said he hoped Obama's VP would be "in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people" and that Clinton as number two would be unlikely: "I think if we had real leadership - as we do with Barack Obama - in the number-two spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful."
Still, Clinton is expected to win the West Virginia primary by a large margin--even Obama acknowledged that she would win W.V. and Kentucky. But the NY Times' Bob Herbert takes both Hillary and Bill Clinton to task for trying to take down Obama with subliminally racist messages (especially after her remarks to USA Today):
I don’t know if Senator Obama can win the White House. No one knows. But to deliberately convey the idea that most white people — or most working-class white people — are unwilling to give an African-American candidate a fair hearing in a presidential election is a slur against whites.
And the Washington Post looks at how the black community has become "increasingly protective of Obama," leaving those who have criticized Obama, like Bill Clinton, Tavis Smiley and the Reverend Wright, under fire.
