Edwards campaign manager backs Obama

Former Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), who served as former Sen. John Edwards’s (D-N.C.) campaign manager until Edwards withdrew from the race, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president Thursday.

Just two days removed from two potentially game-changing primaries, Bonior, on a conference call with Obama supporter and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), said Obama had answered his questions about the freshman senator’s toughness by winning North Carolina and pushing Indiana to the wire.

{mosads}“I was waiting for Sen. Obama to show me the fight that I wanted to see,” Bonior said. “Because it’s going to be a difficult fight against [presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)].”

The former lawmaker said he had spoken with Edwards, who has remained neutral since dropping out of the race, but he declined to discuss the details of their conversation.

Bonior said Edwards would make up his mind when he is ready, and his former campaign manager stated that he was “not prepared to share where he is or where he may be.”

Bonior joined a growing list of Democratic leaders moving to Obama’s column after Tuesday’s results closed the door further on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) chances to win the nomination.

Washington was still abuzz Thursday with the notion that the long and at times bitter Democratic nomination battle was coming to a close. However, Clinton and her staff have vowed to go on through the remaining contests that conclude on June 3.

One Clinton loyalist said the New York senator needs to run the table, meaning that the former first lady must win all of the remaining six primary contests to keep her presidential candidacy viable.

Clinton is heavily favored in next week’s contest in West Virginia and in Kentucky on May 20. But the road gets bumpy for her after that.

Obama is favored in Oregon, which also votes May 20, and in South Dakota and Montana.

Puerto Rico, which votes June 1, might well be Clinton’s last chance for an election-night victory party if she decides to stay in until the end.