SAN JOSE — Former President Clinton urged Democratic Party superdelegates and activists Sunday to be patient in selecting a presidential nominee and let the primary election process play out over the coming months.
A vigorous campaign between his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will not damage the party's prospects of beating the Republican nominee in the fall, Bill Clinton said in a speech to the California Democratic Party convention.
"Don't let anybody tell you that somehow we are weakening the Democratic Party," he told the 2,100 state delegates. "Chill out and let everybody have their say. We are going to win this election."
Before his speech, the former president met privately with about 16 superdelegates who will vote at the national Democratic Party convention in August on the party's nominee. The nomination is expected to be in the superdelegates' hands; neither Obama nor Hillary Clinton appear destined to win the 2,024 pledged delegates needed to secure the nod.
The former president also encouraged superdelegates not to decide prematurely on the nominee and deny voters in upcoming states the chance for their votes to count, several superdelegates said afterward.
Of the 65 California superdelegates selected so far, about 21 have not declared a favorite, party officials say. Of those who have made up their minds, Hillary Clinton leads Obama 29 to 13. Clinton won the Feb. 5 California primary by eight percentage points over Obama.
"President Clinton urged us to let the process play out," said Christine Pelosi, an uncommitted superdelegate who is the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It was very inspiring. The president's emphasis was clearly on electing a Democratic president."
Obama representative
The Obama campaign declined to send a nationally known surrogate to the San Jose convention to counter the former president, but enlisted San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala D. Harris, one of Obama's California co-chairs, to speak on his behalf.
"It is Barack Obama who has the ability to bring our nation together," Harris told the delegates. "Barack Obama will be the president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country."
For Harris, the state's first female African American district attorney but little known outside the Bay Area, the chance to address the convention on Obama's behalf was a big opportunity. But she acknowledged that going head-to-head with the former president -- one of the party's "heroes," she said -- was daunting.
