Rockefeller backs Obama; could affect rural Ohio

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president yesterday, a move that could undercut Sen. Hillary Clinton's efforts to win Ohio partly on the strength of votes from that state's adjoining slice of Appalachia.

"Barack Obama was right about Iraq when many of us were wrong," Rockefeller said. "It was a tough call and the single greatest national security question, and mistake, of our time." Clinton and Obama are running ads on national security, and much of Appalachian Ohio gets its television from stations in West Virginia -- where Rockefeller's statement got strong coverage from stations such as WSAZ in Huntington, where reporter Scott Saxton pointed out that no other member of the Mountain State's congressional delegation had taken sides in the race. He appended the senator's full statement to the online version of his story.

Rockefeller's endorsement "has got to hurt on multiple levels," Al Giordano writes on The Field blog of RuralVotes. "His state of West Virginia was likely to be one of the next illusory 'firewalls' claimed by Clinton if she survived March 4. . . . This will help Obama dampen Clinton’s lead in Ohio’s 6th and 18th congressional districts -- each with five delegates at stake -- and The Field wouldn’t be surprised to see Rockefeller make an appearance there this weekend."

Tom Searls of The Charleston Gazette noted, "Rockefeller was one of the Clintons' main allies in the early 1990s, when they tried to push through legislation to create universal health care. He has been considered a friend of the New York senator, but indicated in his statement Friday that he believes Obama will be more successful in domestic policies, also." (Read more)