Boren said: "Our most urgent task is to end the divisions in our country, to stop the political bickering, and to unite our talents and efforts. Americans of all persuasions are pleading with our political leaders to bring us together. I believe Senator Obama is sincerely committed to that effort. He has made a non-partisan approach to all issues a top priority."
. . .And Picks Up More Superdelegates
Meanwhile, more Democratic superdelegates -- who will hold the balance of power in determing who ultimately wins the party's nomination -- announced their support for Obama. Reggie Whitten, an attorney and superdelegate from Oklahoma, endorsed Obama last Thursday. He said he "could have waited a while'' to endorse the Illinois senator, yet it wasn't "fair'' for Clinton to focus on "that one comment out of context.''
Nancy Larson, a Democratic National Committee member from rural Minnesota, said Clinton's "bothersome'' response contributed to her endorsement of Obama a week ago Sunday.
On Saturday, the Obama campaign said that Steve Achelpohl, the Nebraska state Democratic Party chairman, was backing Obama. Achelpohl told the Lincoln Journal Star that people could rally behind Obama's "positive campaign.''
The seven superdelegates who endorsed Obama this week also include three members of Congress and one city council member from the District of Columbia. Several superdelegates criticized Clinton in interviews with Bloomberg News for what they called parsing Obama's words instead of focusing on policy differences with McCain.
Representative David Price of North Carolina, who endorsed Obama last Wednesday, said that while his announcement was not timed to Clinton's attacks, ''it's disappointing to see this kind of campaign approach.''
The "real issues should be who is addressing economic difficulties,'' Price said.
Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee denied any movement to Obama as a result of the negative campaigning.
"We haven't seen any of that. If anything, this debate and ongoing campaign has been energizing the party,'' Elleithee said.
Obama Pulls a Truman, Gives Clinton Hell Over Her 'Slash and Burn' Tactics
And for the first time in the campaign, Obama took off the gloves and went on the offensive against Clinton, branding the former first lady a game-player who uses "slash and burn" tactics and will say whatever people want to hear -- his sharpest-ever jab at her character in the final weekend before Tuesday's pivotal Pennsylvania primary.
Apparently fed up with weeks of incessant attacks by Clinton against his qualifications to be president, Obama bluntly questioned her truthfulness, playing on poll findings indicating growing public unease with her veracity after the New York senator was forced to acknowledge during last Wednesday's debate with Obama that she didn't tell the truth about her 1996 visit to Bosnia.
In Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, several thousand Obama supporters lined the tracks Saturday for the first stop on a day-long whistle-stop tour evocative of President Harry S. Truman's in 1948 aboard a royal blue train car that pulled out of Philadelphia in late morning.
"I may not be perfect, but I will always tell you what I think and I will always tell you where I stand," he told the crowd. Then, like Truman, Obama gave his rival hell -- although with none of the salty, expletive-laced language that was a trademark of the nation's 33rd president.
"She's taken different positions at different times on issues as fundamental as trade, or even the war, to suit the politics of the moment," he said. "And when she gets caught at it, the notion is, well, you know what, that's just politics. That's how it works in Washington. You can say one thing here and say another thing there."
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