Dodd endorses Obama

Dodd endorses Obama

CLEVELAND — Sen. Christopher Dodd endorsed one-time presidential rival Barack Obama on Tuesday and said it is time for Democrats to join forces to defeat the Republicans in the fall campaign.

“I don’t want a campaign that is divisive here, and there’s a danger in that,” Dodd said, although he denied he was nudging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to end her candidacy.

He said Obama “has been poked and prodded, analyzed and criticized, called too green, too trusting and for all of that has already won” more than half the states and millions of votes.

Obama and Clinton had been vying for Dodd’s support since he exited the presidential race after a poor showing in the Iowa caucus last month. Dodd, 63, who won his Senate seat in 1980 and chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1995-1996, has long-standing ties to the Clintons.

Dodd said he spoke with Clinton on Monday evening to tell her of his decision.

McCain blasts comments

CINCINNATI — Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.

Hussein is Obama’s middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee’s appearance.

“Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change,” Cunningham said as the audience laughed.

McCain wasn’t on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech.

“I apologize for it,” McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham’s comments.

“I did not know about these remarks, but I take responsibility for them. I repudiate them,” he said.

Bill: Don’t fault know-how

DALLAS — Reminding voters of the high-stakes Texas and Ohio primaries next Tuesday, former President Clinton recognized rival Barack Obama’s likability but warned his wife’s supporters not to slip into a “historical amnesia” about the successes of the 1990s.

“The argument being made by the other side is the only way you can really change America is to eliminate for consideration from the presidency anybody that ever did anything good in the 1990s and stopped anything bad from happening in this decade,” the two-term president told supporters Tuesday while campaigning for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

He said the New York senator should not be penalized at the voting booth because she embodies experience.

“I realize that Vice President Cheney and President Bush have given experience a bad name,” Bill Clinton said.

“I know that. But this is not about experience versus change. This is about electing the best change-maker.”

The former president had six rallies scheduled Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Associated Press