Clinton picks up a pastor's endorsement

NEW YORK - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, back in her home state yesterday, attended service at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and gained the endorsement of the church's well-known pastor, the Rev. Calvin Butts, who introduced her as someone who "has been our friend."

Clinton told churchgoers how pleased she was to be there on the weekend of Martin Luther King's Birthday, and she said she had gone with her church youth group to hear him speak. "It was a transforming experience for me," she said.

Several dozen supporters of Sen. Barack Obama showed up and shouted, "Harlem for Obama!" Clinton supporters tried to drown them out by shouting, "Hil-la-ry!"

- AP

ATLANTA - Barack Obama yesterday called for unity to overcome the country's problems as he acknowledged that "none of our hands are clean" when it comes to healing divisions.

Obama took to the pulpit at Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church on the eve of the federal holiday celebrating the civil rights hero's birth 79 years ago.

"The divisions, the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others, all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty, inequality and injustice," Obama said.

- AP

NAVASOTA, Texas - Campaigning for Mike Huckabee, actor Chuck Norris said yesterday that Sen. John McCain was too old to handle the pressures of being president.

"I didn't pick John to support because I'm just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency," said Norris, hosting a fund-raiser for Huckabee at his ranch. "So we need to find someone that can handle it for four years or eight years . . . that has the youth and vision and communication skills to make that work."

Norris, 67, is four years younger than McCain, who will be 72 in August. Huckabee will be 52 in August.

The former Arkansas governor, coming off a second-place finish in the South Carolina primary to McCain, distanced himself from Norris' comments. "Only John McCain and his hairdresser know for sure," he quipped. McCain's campaign did not immediately comment.

- AP

RALEIGH, N.C. - "I got my butt kicked in Nevada," former Sen. John Edwards said on the CBS news program

Face the Nation

yesterday, and he said he hoped "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

But he vowed to continue his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Edwards has lost the first three tests of the Democratic primary campaign. But he was competitive in Iowa and New Hampshire. In Nevada, Edwards won only 4 percent compared to 51 percent for Hillary Rodham Clinton and 45 percent for Barack Obama.

- McClatchy Newspapers