John Edwards endorses Obama

Grand Rapids, Mich. – A day after his landslide defeat in West Virginia’s presidential primary, Barack Obama picked up the long-sought endorsement of vanquished Democratic rival John Edwards.

Coming so late in the race for the party nomination, Edwards’ support was of limited value to Obama – but at the very least it helped project an image of the party uniting behind the Illinois senator.

While Obama has all but locked up the nomination, the scale of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 41-point win in West Virginia sparked new questions about his trouble appealing to white blue-collar voters.

Clinton stands a good chance of defeating Obama again in Kentucky and Puerto Rico, even if she cannot overtake his delegate lead before the nominating contests end on June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.

Obama aides said Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, would appear with the candidate late this afternoon at a rally in Grand Rapids.

After dropping out of the race in January, Obama and Clinton competed fiercely for Edwards’ endorsement, but the 2004 vice presidential nominee declined to take sides.

The Edwards announcement came on a daylong Obama campaign swing across Michigan. At a stop in Warren, outside Detroit, Obama all but ignored Clinton while sharply attacking Republican John McCain.

Faulting McCain for advocating extensions of President Bush’s tax cuts, Obama said he and the Arizona senator would offer Americans a stark choice in November.

“It’s going to be a clear choice between four more years of the same failed Bush policies that have wrecked Michigan’s economy, or real change that allows us to write a new chapter in American manufacturing and the American economy and American history,” Obama told a couple of hundred invited guests at Macomb County Community College.

The visit to Michigan was the second in a string of trips that Obama has started making to general-election battleground states, on the assumption that Clinton cannot accumulate enough delegates to win the nomination. Obama campaigned Tuesday in Missouri and plans a three-day trip to Florida next week.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said weak leadership and poor judgment had led Obama “to make empty promises of billions upon billions in new spending on more government programs when he has no way to pay for it.

“Sen. Obama launched a partisan-style attack questioning John McCain’s straight talk, without providing any evidence of his own leadership or experience on the issues that are hurting Michigan and states like it,” Bounds said.

Earlier, promising economically suffering auto workers that Detroit could again become a powerhouse in a restructured automobile industry.

“I’m running for president so the cars of the future will be made where they’ve always been made, right here in Michigan,” he told workers at a town hall meeting in Warren, in Macomb County, often a bellwether in national elections. He also toured a Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights, another stronghold of so-called Reagan Democrats expected to be crucial in the fall campaign, promising a $150-billion “clean technologies” fund to create manufacturing jobs.

Pushing for innovation and a green energy sector to “bring our automobile industry into the 21st century” and create jobs “that pay well and can’t be outsourced,” the Illinois senator said he wants the auto industry to “have a partner in Washington.” To applause from the crowd, which included Michigan superdelegate Debbie Dingell, Obama said, “You won’t have to wait one year, two years … you’ll meet with me in the first one month I’m in office.”

Obama also criticized McCain for telling Michigan voters last January that the jobs lost from overseas competition were not coming back. “He was right about that,” Obama said. “But where he’s wrong is in suggesting that there’s nothing we can do to replace those jobs or create new ones.”

Arguing that the economy will be the key issue in the fall campaign, Obama said that Republicans already sense their liability on the issue. “They just lost an election yesterday in the heart of Mississippi … a hard-core Republican seat … and they lost it by 8 points,” he said. Noting that Republican ads tried to tie the winner, Democrat Travis Childers, to him by showing images of Obama and replaying the controversial remarks of his former pastor, Obama said, “It didn’t work … because the American people know we need a new direction in Washington.”

Pledging to enact healthcare reform within the first six months of his presidency, Obama praised Clinton’s healthcare plan but alluded to her secrecy in developing her proposal by saying that he plans to invite all the players to a conference, open to public view. “The drug companies will have a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair,” he said. “We’ll invite Republicans and members of Congress” and “it’ll be on C-Span, we’ll do it publicly.”

And meeting with Democratic leaders in the state, Obama pledged to resolve the “hoopla” over the state’s delegation. The Democratic National Committee punished Michigan for moving its primary date ahead of other states, and Obama’s name did not appear on the ballot. Clinton left her name on the January ballot and won 55% of the vote, to 40% for “uncommitted.”

“That wasn’t my choosing – tell us what rules are and we play by the rules,” he said, pledging that “if I’m fortunate enough to be the Democratic nominee, I guarantee you the Michigan delegation will be seated.”

Despite Clinton’s insistence that “the race isn’t over yet,” Obama continued to attract support among superdelegates and other influential officials. His campaign announced his pickup of Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Democrats Abroad chair Christine Schon Marques.

Obama also won the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights political action committee with more than 1 million member-activists in all 50 states. The group praised both Democratic candidates for “standing up for women’s reproductive rights” but said Obama was likely to win the nomination.

“Pro-choice Americans have been fortunate to have two strong pro-choice candidates in Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton, both of whom have inspired millions of new voters to participate in this historic presidential race,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Today, we are proud to put our organization’s grass-roots and political support behind the pro-choice candidate whom we believe will secure the Democratic nomination and advance to the general election. That candidate is Sen. Obama.”

Also endorsing him were three former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen – William Donaldson, David Ruder and Arthur Levitt Jr. – as well as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. “We are aware of the reasoned approach Mr. Obama has taken in analyzing the current financial crisis and the need for balanced regulatory reform,” said a joint statement by the financial officials. “We believe that such a constructive approach can be extended broadly in the economic area as well as elsewhere.”

Obama, fresh from a visit to Missouri on Tuesday, went to Michigan today and plans a visit to Florida next week – part of his campaign swing through battleground states crucial in the fall election.

Clinton, arguing to superdelegates that she will be more competitive against McCain in the fall, is giving a flood of newscast interviews to be aired later today, with appearances on “ABC World News,” “CBS Evening News,” CNN’s “Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer, Fox News, “NBC Nightly News” and “Noticiero Univision.” Facing more than $20 million in debt, the New York senator also planned to meet with financial advisors.

Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe emphasized that there was no alarm in the Clinton camp. “We have the resources to go forward… . Financially, we are in very good shape,” McAuliffe said in a conference call with reporters. Of the donors, he added: “They are very excited, ready to go, ready to help.”

McAuliffe said the campaign had pulled in “seven figures” since Tuesday night.

Obama, who is leading in the tally of delegates, votes and states won, deflected a question about whether he would ask Clinton to be his vice presidential nominee, saying she was still in the race. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a staunch Clinton supporter, has been mentioned as a possible Obama running mate but said today Obama should pick her instead.

“If Sen. Obama becomes our nominee and he wants someone to carry the Clinton banner, there’s no question in my mind he should ask Hillary Clinton,” Rendell said on CNN.

Also today, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee against McCain over his decision to initially request and then reject federal tax money for his primary campaign.

The DNC had asked that the Federal Election Commission rule on the legality of McCain’s decision to turn down public financing for the presidential primary campaign after first seeking the federal money.

But the six-member commission lacks a quorum, and is mired in conflict between President Bush and Senate Democrats over nominees to fill four vacant seats. The suit filed in federal court in Washington sought court approval for the DNC to pursue McCain in court, given that the FEC cannot act.

In a five-page decision, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates today concluded that even though the FEC lacks a quorum, the commission has the responsibility to decide the matter within four months. He left open the possibility that the Democrats could file a new suit its suit again later this year if the FEC cannot act.

“Unless there is a serious and timely investigation by the FEC, we’ll be back in court,” DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said.

 johanna.neuman@latimes.com

 noam.levey@latimes.com

 michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Times staff writers Dan Morain contributed to this report.