Obama to become home healthcare worker for a day

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) Wednesday will become the fourth Democratic presidential candidate to participate in the Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) “Walk a Day in My Shoes” campaign.

The initiative is asking presidential candidates to spend a day living the life of an ordinary worker to better understand their struggles and needs.

{mosads}Obama will work alongside home healthcare worker Pauline Beck and care for an 86-year-old client, a task much less glamorous than participating in the AFL-CIO’s Tuesday Democratic presidential debate.

Obama’s campaign has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday in which the candidate, who is in second place among the Democratic White House hopefuls, describes the experience and discusses his plans to help workers.

Front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is scheduled to participate in Walk a Day in My Shoes next week. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards already have spent a day accompanying a worker to his or her job.

The union has run an ad campaign urging candidates to participate in the program, and most Democrats have heeded the call in the hope of scoring the endorsement of the 1.8 million-member union.

No GOP candidate has agreed to participate, according to the union. However, it is unlikely that the SEIU would endorse a Republican.