Democratic hopeful Barack Obama won the endorsement of former rival Chris Dodd as Hillary Clinton looked to an evening debate to shake up a US presidential race tilting against her.
On the Republican side, presumptive nominee John McCain was
forced to apologise in Cincinnati after Bill Cunningham, a
conservative radio talk show host who preceded him at a rally,
three times referred to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama."
Cunningham also said a Clinton backer, former Secretary of State
Madeline Albright, "looks like death warmed over."
"I want to disassociate myself from any disparaging remarks that
were made," McCain told reporters. He said he did not select
Cunningham to appear at the rally and had never met him.
Obama's full name is Barack Hussein Obama but for a critic to
mention his middle name suggests an attempt to associate him with
the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Dodd, a veteran Connecticut senator who dropped out of the campaign
for the Democratic presidential nomination in early January,
announced his support for Obama at a news conference with the
Illinois senator.
Dodd said he had been "skeptical like many others" of Obama but had
been won over and felt now was "a moment of unity in our country"
when Democrats need to rally behind him.
Obama and Clinton were to face off in a debate in snowy Cleveland,
Clinton's last big chance to turn around the race ahead of
potentially pivotal contests next Tuesday in Texas and Ohio, two
states where polls show Obama making a move.
A New York Times/CBS News poll said Obama is now viewed by most
Democrats as the candidate best able to beat the presumptive
Republican nominee John McCain, in the November election to
determine President George Bush's successor.
The good news for Obama came amid signs of frustration in the
struggling campaign of Clinton, once considered the odds-on
favorite to win the Democratic nomination and now in danger of
getting knocked out of the race.
The Washington Post has reported that over a breakfast meeting with
a group of reporters on Monday, Clinton press secretary Phil Singer
chided journalists for "woefully inadequate" coverage of
Obama.
At the same breakfast, Clinton senior adviser Harold Ickes told the
group: "I think if we lose in Texas and Ohio, Mrs. Clinton will
have to make her decisions as to whether she goes forward or
not."
Washington pundits over the past couple of days have wondered aloud
which Clinton will show up at the Cleveland debate, the one who
last week in Texas said she was honored to share the debate stage
with Obama, or the one who on Saturday declared, "Shame on you,
Barack Obama," for what she basically said was lying about her
record.
Obama said at the news conference with Dodd that the race "has
gotten a little hotter over the last couple of days" and that he
had told his staff - and hoped Clinton had told hers - "let's make
sure that we maintain the kind of campaign that, win or lose, we
will be proud of afterwards."
Clinton admitted at a town-hall meeting in Lorain, Ohio, that "I
got a little hot over the weekend" about the Obama campaign. In
talking about turning around the US economy, she again criticised
Obama's reliance on speeches long on inspiration but lacking a lot
of substance.
"I can't do it just by hoping for it. Hope is not a plan," Clinton
said.
Clinton has been trying to raise questions about whether Americans
should risk handing the presidency to Obama at a time of global
turmoil, given his relative inexperience as a first-term
senator.
The New York Times/CBS News poll suggested this line of attack was
not working.
It said 47% of registered voters had confidence that Obama would
deal wisely with an international crisis, compared to 39% who had
confidence in Clinton. And the poll said 69% believed Obama would
be an effective commander-in-chief, compared to 54% for
Clinton.