Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, but said Hillary Clinton should ignore calls from other Democrats to drop out of the acrimonious race.
Klobuchar, who acknowledged it was “difficult” siding against the first woman with a serious shot at becoming president, personifies the mixed feelings that are splitting the Democratic Party.
“Between Barack and a hard place, I chose Barack,” she told reporters on a conference call. “I believe that Senator Clinton should remain in this race. She’s been a very strong candidate. I don’t agree with some of my colleagues’ comments this past week.”
Klobuchar was referring to fellow Democrats such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who publicly called for Clinton to withdraw from the race in order to spare the party further bloodletting.
“Senator Clinton isn’t going anywhere,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said Monday. “She’s not a quitter. She is a fighter.
“This race is essentially tied,” he said. “A little more than 100 delegates separate the two candidates. The popular vote is essentially tied.” Actually, Obama has a lead of more than 700,000 in the popular vote and at least 150 in pledged delegates. Although Clinton has a few dozen more superdelegates than Obama, that advantage has been steadily eroding in recent weeks.
That’s because the Obama camp has been slowly picking off superdelegates, including Klobuchar, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Each of these endorsements has given Obama’s campaign a publicity boost and shrunk the pool of uncommitted superdelegates, who are Clinton’s main hope for a last-minute victory.
Klobuchar said she privately began leaning toward Obama shortly after he won Minnesota’s caucuses on March 4. Although she had planned to remain publicly neutral, the protracted warfare between the Clinton and Obama camps made her feel increasingly “awkward.”
“I had waited to see if there was a time I could come in, when I could bring our party together,” she said. “And as time went on, I finally decided that I wasn’t going to stay silent.”
She said: “Both of these candidates are my friends and colleagues in the Senate, and I know that their supporters have strong, heartfelt emotions.”
Polls show Clinton leading Obama by an average of 16 points in Pennsylvania, which holds its Democratic primary on April 22. But Obama is ahead of Clinton by 12.7 points in North Carolina, which holds its primary May 6.
Nationally, Obama is leading Clinton by an average of 3.8 points, according to the Web site RealClearPolitics. Gallup’s latest daily tracking poll shows Obama with an eight-point lead.
