Candidate Clinton facing difficult delegate challenge

Candidate Clinton facing
difficult delegate challenge

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton must win 57 percent of the remaining primary and caucus delegates to erase Barack Obama’s lead, a daunting task requiring landslide-sized victories by a struggling presidential candidate.

Obama’s victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday — his ninth and 10th in a row — left him with 1,178 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses in The Associated Press’ count. Clinton has 1,024.

Teamsters endorsement

WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama won an endorsement from the powerful Teamsters union on Wednesday, critical labor support for the Democratic front-runner with upcoming contests in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

“There was very, very strong support for him” among the union’s members, James P. Hoffa, president of the 1.4-million member union, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Hoffa met with Obama on Wednesday in Texas, site of the next Democratic primary against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Teamsters endorsement is expected to help Obama there and in Ohio on March 4, as well as in Pennsylvania on April 22.

The Teamsters have 80,000 members in Pennsylvania, 60,000 in Ohio and 17,000 in Texas, Hoffa said.

Obama office opens
in downtown Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN — Emmy-award winning actress Alfre Woodard and Sonja Williams, wife of Mayor Jay Williams, were on hand Wednesday for the opening of the Obama for America Youngstown office, 25 W. Federal St., in downtown Youngstown.

Also at today’s opening, Alyssa Lenhoff-Dann, a member of the Liberty Board of Education and wife of Attorney General Marc Dann, announced her endorsement of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for president.

McCain: Don’t restrict CIA

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate John McCain said President Bush should veto a measure that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

McCain voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

His vote was controversial because the manual prohibits waterboarding — a simulated drowning technique that McCain also opposes — yet McCain doesn’t want the CIA bound by the manual and its prohibitions. McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Obama takes cash lead

WASHINGTON — Counting her debts, including $5 million she lent her campaign, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ended January with about $1.5 million while Democratic presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama sat comfortably atop a sum more than 10 times bigger. Obama’s campaign said Wednesday he was approaching 1 million unique donors, a fundraising base that already is expanding the $138 million he raised during his one-year quest for the presidency.

Staff and wire reports