Kerry throws support to Obama

CHARLESTON, S.C. — John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Barack Obama on Thursday, snubbing Hillary Rodham Clinton and his vice-presidential running mate.

Kerry came to South Carolina to embrace Obama two weeks before the state's primary.

"Martin Luther King said that the time is always right to do what is right." Kerry told a cheering crowd. Now is the time, Kerry said, to declare "that Barack Obama can be, will be and should be the next president of the United States."

The Massachusetts senator said there were other candidates he had worked with and respected, but Obama was best able to bring Americans together.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who is also running in the Democratic presidential race, was Kerry's running mate in 2004.

Richardson pulls out of race

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday after poor finishes in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

He praised all of his Democratic rivals but endorsed no one. He encouraged voters to "take a long and thoughtful look" and elect one of them president.

Richardson said that although his support at the polls lagged, many of his leading rivals had moved closer to his positions on such issues as the Iraq war and educating young Americans.

"Despite overwhelming financial and political odds, I am proud of the campaign we waged ... and most importantly the influence we had on the issues that matter the most to the future of this country," Richardson said.

On a less-serious note, he estimated the long campaign had included 200 debates. He quickly amended that to 24 but said "it felt like 200."

McCain's daughter pictured in mailing

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate John McCain is using an image of his adopted daughter in a new campaign mailing in South Carolina, where so-called push polling involving the girl helped derail his White House bid eight years ago.

In a mailing that arrived at homes Thursday, the Arizona senator's wife, Cindy, is pictured holding a baby as she walks with a woman from Mother Teresa's orphanage.

"Cindy cradles little Bridget, a baby she and John adopted in 1993 from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh. Bridget has been a great blessing to the McCain family," the mailing says. "Today, Cindy and John work together to promote adoption and to help women facing crisis pregnancies."

The mailing arrived the same week McCain's campaign announced it was forming a "Truth Squad" to head off the kind of negative campaigning that dashed his 2000 run against George W. Bush.

Push polling is a technique in which a caller pretending to conduct a poll attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents. In 2000, voters were called and asked about McCain's daughter; the callers insinuated she was illegitimate. The girl is now 15.

Seattle Times news services