(CNN) - Two superdelegates - Reps. David Price and Mel Watt - announced their endorsement of Barack Obama on a conference call in advance of the White House hopeful’s visit to the state tomorrow. Watt had previously backed John Edwards.
Obama now has received endorsements from six North Carolina superdelegates, including party vice chair Dannie Montgomery, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, former Democratic Party director Everett Ward, and former Watt staffer Joyce Brayboy, a lobbyist.
Hillary Clinton has the backing of superdelegate Susan Burgess, a Charlotte city councilwoman.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/16/art.hrcspeech0416.ap.jpg caption="Sen. Clinton spoke in Washington, D.C. Wednesday."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A day after John McCain's high-profile economic speech in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the presumptive GOP nominee “has very little understanding” of the national debt to China.
“Yesterday, he made it clear that when it comes to the economy he looks at the hole President Bush has dug us into and says, ‘Why not more? Let’s go deeper,’” Clinton said in remarks to the Building and Trades National Legislative Conference in Washington.
Accusing China of steel dumping, exporting tainted toys and currency manipulation, Clinton blasted Republicans for accommodating growing Chinese influence.
She said she remembered her brothers pretending to dig a hole to China in their family backyard.
“Little did I believe, all these years later, that we would have the Republican Party and president and a Republican nominee who are literally digging us a hole to China,” she said.
Clinton said McCain “has very little understanding of how we are going to get our selves out of that hole” and issued a familiar attack against his economic credentials.
“I know that many people will be very impressed and admiring of Sen. McCain’s record of service,” she said, “but he’s admitted he doesn’t understand the economy. He has proved that in this campaign.”
(CNN) - On an Obama conference call Wednesday, campaign manager David Plouffe would not say whether or when the Illinois senator would be releasing his 1997-99 tax returns.
"We released our full tax returns for the entire decade, same period,” said Plouffe, adding that they would “shortly” be releasing the full 2007 returns.
But Plouffe was referring to the years 2000 through 2006, the “same period” as the returns released by Hillary Clinton’s campaign recently, after Obama did the same. The New York senator’s tax returns for the past 30 years have now been made public.
“Despite touting its commitment to transparency, the Obama campaign is apparently refusing to release Sen. Obama’s tax returns from 1997, 1998 and 1999,” the Clinton campaign said in a statement sent to reporters Wednesday afternoon. “It’s unfortunate that Sen. Obama isn’t living up to the standards he sets for everyone else.”
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/images/01/01/art.liebermainmccain.gi.jpg caption=" Sen Lieberman has traveled with McCain on the campaign trail."]
(CNN) - Sen. Joe Lieberman - the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 - is willing to address the Republican National Convention if it will help Sen. John McCain win in November, his office confirms to CNN.
In an interview published Tuesday night, the independent Connecticut senator told The Hill newspaper that “If Sen. McCain, who I support so strongly, asked me to do it, if he thinks it will help him, I will.”
Lieberman, who lost his Democratic superdelegate status when he was re-elected to the Senate as an independent, endorsed the Arizona senator earlier this year and has actively campaigned for the presumptive GOP nominee.
McCain has not yet asked Lieberman if he would address the Republican nominating convention in September.
(CNN) - Two of the Democratic Party’s former presidential nominees have endorsed the idea of a superdelegate convention in June to end the bitter nominating fight.
Mike Dukakis, the 1988 nominee, and George McGovern, who topped the ticket in 1972, told the Boston Globe they believe superdelegates should state their choice publicly soon after the primary season ends. The idea was first proposed by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama can reach the required 2,025 delegates without the support of the party's superdelegates.
"We don't want an acrimonious battle all the way to the convention and maybe out onto the convention floor," said McGovern, who has endorsed Clinton. "We had that in 1972, when I was nominated, and it was very damaging."
He added that if he had had more time to consider his choice of a running mate, he might have avoided difficulties with his first selection, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, that further damaged his bid.
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