The Trail

BOOSTING HILLARY CLINTON

Ex-DNC Chairmen Appeal to Superdelegates

Stung by the defection of a former chairman of the Democratic Party, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign on Friday released a letter from a group of other former party chairs, who argue that she would have a better chance of defeating Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the general election than would Sen. Barack Obama and who also urge superdelegates to support her.

The letter, addressed to members of the Democratic National Committee, came a day after Joe Andrew, who led the DNC during Bill Clinton's presidency, switched his support from the senator from New York to Obama. Andrew said it is time to bring the nomination battle to a close to avoid damaging the party's chances of winning in November.

The letter came hours after the Obama campaign announced that another former DNC chair, Paul G. Kirk Jr., had endorsed the senator from Illinois. Kirk's support, however, has been public since February, and he was included on the Associated Press list of committed superdelegates.

The new letter pointed to Hillary Clinton's victories in some of the biggest states as evidence of her broad appeal and said she has demonstrated the kind of support critical to winning a general election.

"Her base of support includes women, Hispanics, seniors, Catholics, middle and low income Americans, and rural, suburban and urban voters," the former party leaders wrote. "That's a formidable coalition tailor-made for victory in a November general election."

The signatories, all previously announced Clinton supporters, were: Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, Clinton campaign chairman Terence R. McAuliffe, Don Fowler, Kenneth Curtis, Charles Manatt, Debra DeLee, Steven Grossman and the family of the late Ron Brown.

-- Dan Balz

'A COUPLE OF ROUGH WEEKS'

Obama Tries What Worked Before

INDIANAPOLIS -- Entering the final weekend before Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Barack Obama is working to reassure voters and recover from what he called on Friday "a couple of rough weeks."

Obama's campaign took stock of polls that show voter doubts rising even with his delegate lead over Hillary Clinton and decided that he needed to further introduce himself to them, the candidate said at a news conference. His campaign is once again sounding notes about his biography and his message of change, which would be familiar to audiences in the early-voting states that launched his momentum.

Obama has pursued this strategy since Monday in more than a dozen stops in Indiana and North Carolina. Apart from large get-out-the-vote rallies in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Bloomington, Ind., he has kept the settings smaller and more intimate, always taking questions from the audience.

"When you're running for president, you make certain assumptions that people, after 15 months, really know who you are," Obama said. "Then you realize, well, maybe there's still a whole bunch of folks who don't know who you are, despite the fact you're on TV every day. . . . I want to find as many venues as possible where people can lift the hood and kick the tires, so that they feel confident about why I'm in this race."

-- Peter Slevin