Presidential race

Democrats push for end to presidential primary campaign

Some worry that prolonged sniping helps McCain

PHILADELPHIA — The outcome of Pennsylvania's Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday is expected to do little to alter the dynamics of the race for pledged delegates between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but it could accelerate the march of superdelegates to one camp or the other, bringing the candidates' long battle closer to an end.

The signs were evident Friday when a handful of prominent Democrats endorsed Obama, including former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and centrist David Boren of Oklahoma. Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary under former President Bill Clinton, presidency, also announced his support for Obama.

Jae C. Hong/ASSOCIATED PRESS (enlarge photo) Barack Obama is gaining key endorsements within party.

The endorsements came a day after national party chairman Howard Dean urged the superdelegates — elected officials, activists and party insiders — to declare their allegiance to a candidate now instead of waiting until the summer.

The reason: Democrats are increasingly worried that Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is benefiting from the extra-innings contest between Obama and Clinton, which began more than 15 months ago.

And rightly so, some experts say. Pennsylvania Democrats hold their primary Tuesday, and "the winner is Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain," said Andrew Polsky, a presidential expert at Hunter College.

In the nearly seven weeks since their big showdown in Ohio and Texas in early March, Obama and Clinton have both stumbled.

Obama drew criticism for his comments that economically strapped small-town voters are "bitter," and Clinton falsely claimed that she once came under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia when she was first lady.

Rather than taking on McCain, Obama and Clinton have attacked each other during the past few weeks, in part because the outcome of Pennsylvania's primary could reverberate loudly through the rest of the primaries and caucuses this spring.

"Sen. McCain has been able to join the attacks on the Democrats while escaping serious counterfire, and his campaign has been handed ammunition it will be able to use to good effect in the fall," Polsky said.

Indeed, Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told CNN on Thursday that the party "cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time" before the party's convention in August.

The superdelegates "need ... to say who they're for, starting now," Dean said.

About 65 percent of the superdelegates have said whom they prefer to be the party's nominee, but more than 300 have yet to announce their choice to lead the party against McCain in the fall.

Neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the 2,025 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first convention ballot without superdelegate support, even if one of them wins all the remaining contests with overwhelming majorities, which is unlikely.

Clinton is clinging to a small lead in the polls in Pennsylvania in advance of Tuesday's contest for the state's 158 pledged delegates.

However, because the delegates will be divided proportionally, the real contest that day is for the 300 or so uncommitted superdelegates. And in the days since the surfacing of one of Obama's worst gaffes of the campaign — the observation that small town Americans cling to religion and guns out of frustration — he has gained six convention superdelegates, to two for Clinton, according to The Associated Press.

"The most important constituency in Pennsylvania is not in Pennsylvania — but the superdelegates spread out all over the country," said John Zogby, an independent pollster. "They are looking for clarity," especially on the question "can Obama beat McCain?" he said.

Party leaders will examine the exit polling to see if Obama is attracting the moderates known as "Reagan Democrats" in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

They also will analyze the polls to determine whether Obama's lackluster debate performance or his comments about economically stressed Americans have had any lasting effect.

Still, in Pennsylvania, as in some other states that have already held primaries or caucuses, a surge of new voters, independents and Republicans have been switching to the Democratic Party, a trend that thus far has favored Obama.

In Pennsylvania, the state Democratic Party has added 300,000 voters to their rolls since January. (Texas has an open primary system under which voters do not register by party; but analysis of the March 4 vote so far has failed to turn up evidence of a huge burst in voter registration or in Republicans voting in the Democratic primary.)

Many experts agree that Obama doesn't have to win Pennsylvania but just stay close to Clinton. But Clinton has to win in the Keystone State in order to remain a credible alternative to Obama, they said.

A growing number of Democrats would like Clinton to "toss in the towel" so the party can start taking aim at McCain, said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "But as long as she is winning, it will be difficult to convince her she should drop out," he said.