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WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton’s troubled White House hopes suffered
another body blow as civil rights hero and Democratic elder John
Lewis defected to surging rival Barack Obama.
“Something is happening in America,” argued
Lewis, who walked in the iconic footsteps of Martin Luther King, and
said he now sensed a comparable groundswell of historic change
sweeping the country.
The timing of his switch was especially galling
for Clinton, just days before Texas and Ohio hold March 4 nominating
contests which her campaign admits she must win to keep her White
House dreams alive.
Obama, meanwhile, in a preview of a possible
general election match-up, sparred over Iraq with presumptive
Republican nominee John McCain.
Also, a nagging uncertainty of the 2008
presidential race was put to rest when billionaire New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg said he would not enter the fray.
Speculation had raged for months that Bloomberg,
the 65-year-old businessman-turned-politician, would mount a
muscular independent bid that could influence the outcome of the
presidential race, likely by diverting Democratic votes.
“I want to be on the side of the people, on
the side of the spirit of history,” he said.
Lewis, 68, was the latest superdelegate—Democratic
party luminaries who can vote how they like at the party
convention—to choose Obama, further weakening Clinton’s hopes.
-- AFP
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