Leahy Endorses Obama

By Paul Kane
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), a 33-year veteran of the Senate who chairs the Judiciary Committee, endorsed the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama as the Illinois senator tries to demonstrate his support among his party's elder statesmen in advance of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday.

Leahy -- who was first elected to the Senate in 1974 when Obama was in the eighth grade at the Punahou School in Honolulu -- became the seventh senator to endorse the 46-year-old Obama over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who has the backing of 10 of her colleagues in the chamber.

"We need a president who can reintroduce America to the world, and reintroduce America to ourselves," Leahy, 67, said in a conference call with reporters.

The Leahy endorsement came a week after Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, endorsed Obama. Until late December, Obama had just one endorsement from the Senate, that of his home-state colleague, Richard J. Durbin.

David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, told reporters that Leahy's backing would be a sign of approval to voters in the 22 states who will cast their votes and caucus on Feb. 5, showing that the campaign can appeal to voters beyond just the Generation Y vote that has provided the energy of the Obama campaign. "As the campaign moves more nationally, it's important that voices like Senator Leahy's can be heard," Plouffe said.

Leahy, Plouffe said, "had the judgment, like Senator Obama did, to oppose the Iraq war from the start." Clinton and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) both voted for the war resolution in 2002.