Former President Bill Clinton helped his wife, Hillary, secure a key endorsement from an African-American leader who was being courted by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
South Carolina state Sen. Robert Ford said yesterday he was backing Sen. Clinton’s 2008 presidential run and that he was swayed, in part, by a personal call from Bill Clinton. Ford told The Post he also received calls from the senator.
“That made somebody like me feel real honored,” he said.
Ford supported fellow Southerner John Edwards in 2004 and said he had been lobbied by him again this time.
It’s the first direct sign that Bill Clinton – whom author Toni Morrison once dubbed the “first black president” – is interceding directly with officials who are on the fence for 2008.
Sen. Clinton also picked up the backing of South Carolina state Sen. Darrell Jackson, who, like Ford, had been lobbied by Obama.
Support from African-American voters is key in South Carolina, where 49 percent of the Democratic presidential primary vote in 2004 came from blacks. The state will host the first Southern primaries for both Republicans and Democrats in 2008.
Bill Clinton is slated to appear at New York’s black and Hispanic caucus meeting this weekend – which one supporter of Sen. Clinton said “definitely sends a signal” that he’s looking to make sure her black support is secure.
Ford said he likes Obama, but “I think that African-Americans on a large scale are supporting Hillary Clinton because of who she is . . . This is her time, more so than anybody else who’s running.”
Clinton insiders said the former president has been making calls on her behalf to various people, not only black leaders, in the weeks since she declared her candidacy.
But his enduring popularity with black voters will likely be a boon to his wife, who already has strong black support in her own right.
Meanwhile, a new USA Today/Gallup poll showed Sen. Clinton stretching her lead over Obama, 40 percent to 21 percent, while Republican Rudy Giuliani is leading Arizona Sen. John McCain, 40 percent to 16 percent.
Clinton’s lead last month had been 11 points, while Giuliani’s had been 4 points. The poll was of 435 Republicans and GOP-leaning independent voters nationwide, and 495 Democrats and Dem-leaning independents, from Feb. 9- 11. The primary numbers have a 5-point margin of error.