Campaign 2008

From The Associated Press

Edwards declines to make an endorsement

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—Former Sen. John Edwards, in his first public speech since dropping his White House bid two months ago, praised Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on Saturday, but declined to endorse either candidate.

“I have a very high opinion of both of them,” Edwards said at the Young Democrats of North Carolina convention. “We would be blessed as a nation to have either one of them as president.”

Edwards pointed out the historical nature of both of their campaigns and said both were better suited in carrying forward his campaign platform than Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain..

Though the Young Democrats convention focused primarily on state races, both Obama and Clinton sent surrogates to represent them. Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker gave a speech on behalf of the Illinois senator while Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, made an appearance later Saturday.

Texas Democrats working to settle caucus contest

Democrats gathered in basketball gyms, churches and courthouses Saturday for another phase of Texas’ complex caucus system to decide whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will win more delegates in the state.

Because of the huge Democratic turnout in Texas’ primary and caucuses March 4, just registering delegates at the approximately 280 county and senate district conventions sometimes took hours.

Preliminary caucus results tallied by The Associated Press showed that Clinton had 178 delegates, or 63 percent, to 103 delegates, or 37 percent, for Obama at midday Saturday. That’s out of about 7,300 delegates expected to be selected at the county and district conventions.

A total of 67 delegates are at stake in the Texas caucuses. The final count will be determined at the state party convention in June.