Pelosi refines comments on superdelegates

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took to the airwaves this morning to say the fight for the Democratic nomination should be allowed to run its course, a slight twist after she was criticized for comments that appeared to back one Democratic presidential aspirant over the other.

Both Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama campaigned today in Pennsylvania where the next Democratic primary will be held on April 22. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, campaigned in Virginia.

Speaking on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Pelosi said that the Democratic superdelegates have a right to vote their consciences rather than just be bound by the results of the contests in their home districts or states.

Previously, Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had said she thought the votes of the superdelegates should follow the results of the contests during the primary and caucus season. That view seemed to support the position of the Obama campaign and was immediately criticized in a letter by 20 key fund-raisers for the Clinton campaign.

The issue focuses attention on the power that the almost 800 superdelegates will wield in the Democratic nomination process. Obama is about 130 pledged delegates and superdelegates ahead of Clinton, according to the Associated Press. But with 10 contests remaining, neither candidate seems likely to reach the 2,024 needed for the nomination.

Clinton is ahead with just the superdelegates, but about 40% of them have yet to announce their choice. That means that the superdelegates – office-holders and party officials – will likely cast the deciding votes in the nominating process.

Both campaigns have made strong pitches to the superdelegates. Obama has argued that since he is ahead with the popular vote, pledged delegates and money raised, he should get the superdelegates’ support. Clinton has argued that she has won the major states, with the most electoral votes in the November general election. Both claim they can beat McCain.

There have been calls by Obama supporters to end the current battles by having Clinton withdraw. She, supported by Obama, has rejected those requests.

Speaking to labor leaders in Philadelphia, Clinton compared herself to Rocky Balboa, the chump boxer who redeems himself in the movie “Rocky” and its sequels. She compared the state of the nomination race to a famous movie scene in which Balboa races up museum steps to get into shape for a championship bout.

“Sen. Obama says he is getting tired of the campaign,” Clinton said in televised comments. “His supporters say they want it to end. Well, could you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said: ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough.’

“That’s not the way it works. Let me tell you something – when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” Clinton said.

She also announced plans to create 3 million jobs by increasing funding for infrastructure.

Obama, in an interview taped Monday and aired today on NBC’s “Today Show,” said Clinton “has certainly earned the right to stay in this race as long as she wants… . I think she deserves to be able to run and make her case.”

Obama campaigned in Wilkes Barre, Pa., today, appealing to blue-collar voters, a key voting group in Pennsylvania.

“I’m running for president of the United States because we need someone in the White House who will stand up for working people,” he said at a Town Hall speech where he focused on economic issues, including helping those who face foreclosure on their homes.

Pelosi this morning repeated her past comments that, in her view, it would hurt the party’s chances in November if voters believe that superdelegates were overturning the will of the people as demonstrated in the primaries and caucuses.

“I think the election has to run its course,” Pelosi said today. “I think that for all that I have said about respecting the will of the people, that the inference to be drawn from that is that we have to continue the election in terms of hearing from the people.

“I do think that it is important for us to get behind one candidate a long time before we go to the Democratic National Convention if we hope to win in November,” Pelosi said.

With the GOP nomination all but assured, McCain has concentrated on reintroducing himself to audiences. He has been talking about the key influences on his life.

Today he campaigned at his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., where he praised a former teacher, William B. Ravenel, the subject of a Web ad distributed by the campaign.

“His influence in my life was more important and more benevolent than that of any person outside my family. Mr. Ravenel was head of the English department, and coached the junior varsity football team, on which I played. He had been a star running back at Davidson College and had a master’s degree in English from Duke. Like most men of his generation, he had known far greater danger than that posed by a tough defensive line. He had served in Patton’s tank corps during the Third Army’s aggressive advance across Europe, and had survived hard encounters with Hitler’s Panzer divisions. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, the only master at school who still served in the military.

“He seemed to his students to be as wise and capable as anyone could expect to be,” McCain said.

michael.muskal@latimes.com