Barack Obama has received a much-needed boost with an endorsement from the Hispanic former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, who praised the “eloquence, sincerity, and optimism” of the Illinois senator’s landmark speech on race.
- In full: Coverage of the US elections
- Barack Obama speech is multi-million hit on YouTube
- Snoopers view presidential candidates' files
Mr Richardson, the governor of New Mexico and one of America’s most influential Hispanic politicians, had been aggressively courted by Bill Clinton on behalf of his wife Hillary.
The former president watched the Super Bowl with Mr Richardson last month and reminded him that he had been given two cabinet posts during the Clinton administration.
Widely seen as a possible vice-presidential candidate, Mr Richardson’s endorsement is a key indicator that more and more Democrats view Mrs Clinton’s chances of securing the party’s nomination as remote now that it seems certain that there will be no re-run of the votes in the big states of Florida and Michigan.
The endorsement might also help Mr Obama draw a line under the firestorm over inflammatory comments by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his long-time pastor. Mr Obama, who has slipped in opinion polls since the furore erupted, criticised but refused to disown Mr Wright in a powerful speech on Tuesday about race and America.
Mr Richardson dropped out of the White House stakes in January after finishing a distant fourth in Iowa and New Hampshire.
With Mr Obama standing beaming behind him a rally in Oregon yesterday, he said he had been moved by the senator’s speech, which has been viewed 2.6 million times on the YouTube website.
“He called upon us not just to dream about a less racially divided America, but also to do the hard work needed to build such an America,” Mr Richardson said.
“He asked every American to see the reality and the pain of other Americans, so that together we can rise above that which has divided us. He appealed to the best in us.
“As a Hispanic, I was particularly touched by his words. I have been troubled by the demonisation of immigrants - specifically Hispanics - by too many in this country.”
Mr Richardson’s endorsement would have carried much more weight if it had come before the Texas primary, which Mr Obama narrowly lost. Of the remaining 10 contests, only tiny Puerto Rico has a significant Hispanic population. But it could yet prove significant in the national election in November.
The move is also a personal rebuff to the Clintons and will help bolster Mr Obama’s credentials as prospective commander-in-chief given Mr Richardson’s foreign policy experience as a United Nations Ambassador.
The Wright issue was kept alive by the Obama campaign yesterday after it passed a copy of a photograph of the controversial pastor meeting the then president at a prayer breakfast in the White House in 1998.
Mr Clinton also sent a thank you letter to Mr Wright after the breakfast, at which, with tears welling in his eyes, he had apologised for having “sinned” by having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a young intern.
The Obama campaign said the photograph showed Mrs Clinton’s “hypocrisy” in privately telling “super-delegates” - Democratic officials who have a vote in the nomination process - that the Wright affair made her rival dangerously vulnerable to John McCain, the Republican nominee. Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs Clinton, said it was “lowdown politics” to “peddle photos of President Clinton shaking hands with Reverend Wright less than 48 hours after calling for a high-minded conversation on race”.
Michael Weiss
Peter Foster
Tim Stanley