Democratic front-runner Barack Obama has scored a coup in his White House nominating battle against Hillary Clinton by winning the high-profile endorsement of blue-collar champion John Edwards.
Edwards, a two-time presidential hopeful and the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, formally backed the Illinois senator at an exuberant Michigan rally late on Wednesday, reinforcing signs of the Democratic establishment closing ranks behind Obama.
The announcement punctured Clinton’s short-lived boost after her landslide win in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary, although the former first lady said she did not believe in quitting and would fight on.
Edwards hailed Clinton as a woman “made of steel” who had strengthened the Democratic Party and the eventual presidential nominee by fighting so doggedly for issues dear to her heart.
But the former North Carolina senator said: “The Democratic voters of America have made their choice and so have I.”
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe brushed off Edwards’ announcement, which capped a day of endorsements for Obama including that of the nation’s top abortion rights organization.
“We respect John Edwards, but as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this thing is far from over,” he said.
The former first lady routed Obama by 67 percent to 26 percent in West Virginia and was the runaway leader with white and lower-income voters, in a worrying sign for Obama as he contemplates swing voters Democrats need to win in November.
Asked earlier on CNN if she would fight to the end of the primary season on June 3, Clinton said: “I’m not going anywhere, except to Kentucky and Oregon, and Montana, South Dakota, and Puerto Rico. I don’t believe in quitting.”
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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