WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's superdelegate lead over Sen. Barack Obama was narrowed even more Saturday, according to CNN's latest delegate estimate.

Sen. Barack Obama greets supporters Friday as he campaigns in Beaverton, Oregon.

Obama closed to within one superdelegate of Clinton, picking up the support of four party leaders after a flurry of new endorsements over the past two days. Clinton, meanwhile, picked up the votes of two superdelegates but lost one to Obama.

That brings Clinton's superdelegate total to 273 and Obama's to 272.

At the beginning of the year, Clinton led the superdelegate race by more than 100.

Superdelegates are Democratic officials who hold the balance of power in determining the party's presidential nominee.

Obama holds a commanding lead in the number of pledged delegates awarded from primaries and caucuses: 1,592 to Clinton's 1,424.

Since Friday night, Obama has picked up four superdelegates, including Arizona congressman Harry Mitchell and Carol Burke and Kevin Rodriquez of the Virgin Islands.

"Like the primary voters of my congressional district, which Sen. Obama carried, I am inspired by Barack's vision for America, his ability to unify our country and bring much-needed to change to Washington," Mitchell said in a statement Saturday.

Rodriquez had backed Clinton but decided to switch his endorsement, citing Obama's ability to unite the Democratic Party and win the White House, according to Obama's campaign.

Kristi Cumming, named an add-on superdelegate by the Utah Democratic Party late Friday night, also said she will vote for Obama.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of Texas announced his support for the New York senator Saturday, and Arthur Powell was named an add-on superdelegate by the Massachusetts Democratic Party and said he would vote for Clinton.

The Obama campaign had announced the support of seven superdelegates Friday, including one previous Clinton backer.

A flood of superdelegate endorsements for Obama could effectively end the Democratic race.

Neither candidate has the 2,025 total delegates needed for the nomination. Obama has 1,862 total delegates and Clinton has 1,697, according to a CNN survey.

There are only 217 pledged delegates up for grabs in the remaining contests.

After Clinton's narrow win Tuesday in Indiana and and her double-digit loss in North Carolina, former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said he had decided to back Obama over the former first lady. McGovern is not a superdelegate.

But Clinton is not going down without a fight, making arguments to superdelegates that she is the best candidate to lead a Democratic ticket in November.

Her campaign tried to appeal to elected Democrats in Republican-leaning districts, arguing that Clinton can win more votes there than Obama and thus help their re-election prospects.

In a PowerPoint presentation e-mailed to the nearly 800 superdelegates, the campaign detailed how she had defeated Obama in GOP-leaning congressional districts and had consistently topped him among key voting blocs such as senior citizens and Hispanics. View the PowerPoint presentation

Despite those efforts, the Clinton camp appears to be planning an exit strategy, according to Lawrence O'Donnell, a Huffington Post contributor who cited Clinton insiders.

"What the senior campaign official has told me is that they will go through the final votes on June 3," O'Donnell said on CNN's "American Morning." "Remember, Hillary is going to win maybe three of the elections, and Obama is going to win maybe three elections coming out of it."

O'Donnell said the source told him that the Clinton campaign would make its case to the superdelegates for about a week after the primaries ended.

Meanwhile, former Democratic contender John Edwards said Friday on NBC and MSNBC that Obama is the likely nominee. Edwards is not a superdelegate.

Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have heavily wooed the former senator from North Carolina since he ended his presidential run in January, but he has not publicly endorsed either candidate.

Edwards said Friday that he worried the continuing campaign could take a toll on the Democratic Party's chances in November.

"I think it's fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But when that shifts to everything that is wrong with [Obama], then we're doing damage instead of being helpful."
Source : CNN

Barack Obama,the Democratic presidential hopeful, has pulled ahead of his rival in superdelegate endorsements for the first time, bringing him ever closer to the Democratic presidential nomination.

He had picked up nine new endorsements by Saturday, including two superdelegates from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Hillary Clinton.

Two others superdelegates from Ohio and Utah also declared their support for Obama.

Kevin Rodriquez, a Virgin Islands superdelegate, said he switched from Clinton to Obama because he believed Obama had brought energy and excitement to the party

"He has shown he can connect with Democrats, Republicans and independents across this country, whether we live on the mainland or an island," Rodriquez said.

Obama also won praise from John Edwards, his former Democratic rival, who told NBC's Today show: "Let's assume Barack is the nominee, because it's certainly headed in that direction."

Superdelegates

At the beginning of the year, Clinton held an imposing lead in terms of superdelegates, but there have been a number of defections.

"I always felt that if anybody establishes himself as the clear leader, the superdelegates would fall in line,'' said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic national committee and a superdelegate who supports Clinton.

"It is perceived that he [Obama] is the leader, the trickle is going to become an avalanche."

The superdelegates - a group of nearly 800 party leaders and elected officials who are not bound by the state-by-state contests and are free to back any candidate at the Democratic nominating convention in August - will be key to winning the Democratic nomination because the Democratic race has been so close.

Changing tack

Since Tuesday's primaries, where Obama won North Carolina and only narrowly lost Indiana to Clinton, the two Democratic candidates have begun scaling back their attacks on each other.

Speaking at a Kentucky Democratic party dinner in Louisville, Clinton, who if she won would be the country's first female president, only mentioned Obama to draw comparisons between women and blacks.

"Neither Senator Obama nor I nor many of you were fully included in the vision of our founders," she said.

"Once we have a nominee, I know in my heart we will come together as a party."

On Friday, Obama appeared to be turning his focus to a presidential election showdown, warning John McCain, the Republican White House candidate, would continue the "failed policies" of George Bush, the president.

He took direct aim at McCain, saying he differed with the Arizona senator on some fundamental issues such as the Iraq war, taxes, petrol prices and health care.

"John McCain wants to continue George Bush's war in Iraq, losing thousands of lives and spending tens of billions of dollars a month to fight a war that isn't making us safe," Obama said in Beaverton, Oregon.

"Senator McCain is running for president to double down on George Bush's failed policies. I am running to change them and that is what will be the fundamental difference in this election when I am the Democratic nominee for president."

'Little experience'

But in a confrontation, McCain's team is expected to question Obama's experience, in particular on national security.

They will accuse him of seeking to raise taxes on all Americans, but will also home in on what Democrats consider one of Obama's main attributes, his promises to unite the country.

Obama got a taste of what to expect from Republicans on Thursday when Karl Rove, the architect of Bush's two election victories, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the lengthy Democratic battle had helped bring in new voters, but had also exposed weaknesses in Clinton and Obama.

The Republicans also came under scrutiny on Thursday when the man picked by the McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned after a report that his lobbying firm had represented Myanmar's military rulers.

Doug Goodyear, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned as convention co-ordinator, saying he did so in order not to become a "distraction".

The US magazine Newsweek reported Goodyear's firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Myanmar's government.

According to Newsweek's online story, justice department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with Myanmar's ruling generals, who in recent weeks have refused to allow international aid workers into Myanmar to help with relief efforts after the country was struck by a devastating cyclone.

Newsweek said Goodyear's firm led a public relations campaign to improve the government's image, drafting news releases praising Myanmar's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims Myanmar's rulers sanctioned rape and other abuses.

"It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago," Newsweek quoted Goodyear as saying.

source : Al Jazeera.