Obama wins backing from rival Edwards

I don't know how many final nails have to be driven into Hillary's coffin for her finally to admit that the game is up, but the endorsement of Obama by John Edwards has surely got to make even Nosferatu Clinton pause for thought.

Barack Obama received a huge boost on his way to the Democratic nomination yesterday when he beat off Hillary Clinton to secure the endorsement of their former rival John Edwards. The announcement helped to offset Obama's defeat at the hands of Clinton in the West Virginia primary, one of his worst election results since the Democratic nomination contest began on January 3.

Edwards, who was the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 2004, pulled out off the race in January and has been energetically courted by both Clinton and Obama since. His strength is his appeal to blue-collar, white voters, the demographic group that Obama has been struggling to win over. Edwards fought his campaign on an anti-poverty platform.

The timing of his endorsement is also very important, coming just after Obama's defeat in West Virginia. It is a deliberate attempt by Edwards to signal that the race is actually over and that Hillary should stand down.

Edwards potentially brings with him a further 12 delegates won in the early stages of the primary, who may now follow his lead by throwing their Democratic convention votes behind Obama.

Obama announced support from another handful of superdelegates yesterday, who took him to within 133 delegates of the 2,026 target. He has 1,893 to Clinton's 1,718.

But Clinton insisted she would stay in the race until the final primaries - South Dakota and Montana - on June 3, bringing to an end an epic 56 contests that began in Iowa on January 3. But Obama may meet the magic number before then.

There is every indication that Hillary will stand for the last three weeks of this contest, although I must be honest and say that I really don't understand what her game plan is anymore. If it's a plan to convince the super delegates that she is the candidate to beat McCain then it must surely be obvious, even to her, that this plan is never going to work.

Perhaps she hopes that some desperate last minute gaffe from Obama might hand her the prize, I honestly don't know. Her whole campaign now seems to me like some exercise in futility. I used to worry that she wanted to make Obama unelectable, but from her victory speech in West Virginia that no longer seems to be the case. Indeed, she has even gone as far as to warn her more zealous supporters that it would be "a terrible mistake" to vote for McCain instead of Obama.

Which leaves me wondering why she is hanging on when every single indication is that she is heading for defeat. Perhaps she has embraced this role as "a fighter" and simply wants to go the distance. It's a bit late in the day to begrudge her that if that is what she truly wants.

However, surely even Hillary realises that the intervention of Edwards at this point is an indication that the party itself is not going to allow her to play the race card concerning her huge victory in West Virginia.

David Saunders, a former Edwards campaign adviser, said the timing of the endorsement could not have been better, given Obama's loss in West Virginia.

"For Barack Obama, I think he ought to kiss Johnny Edwards on the lips to kill this 41-point loss," he added. "The story is not going to be the 41-point loss. It's going to be Edwards's endorsement."

That is a very fair point, but it is as I say, incredibly telling that Edwards has chosen this moment to make his endorsement. This was a moment when Hillary would have wanted to play on the doubts of the super delegates and to emphasise what Hillary perceives to a fatal weakness in the Obama candidacy, that certain groups of whites will not vote for him. Edwards is making clear that he is not having any of that. He is stepping in and changing the storyline before Hillary goes down that road.

So she goes on, but she now does so knowing that many of the party's strongest members are not going to allow her to do too much damage to the prospective nominee.

This isn't just an endorsement, it's a game changer, and the game that is being changed is Hillary's.

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Tags: John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, Democratic presidential nominee