The man who managed Bill Clinton's winning 1992 presidential campaign endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for US president Wednesday, snubbing Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in the process.

David Wilhelm, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, was quoted by ABC News as saying that Obama has tapped into "a sense of energy, a sense of idealism, that I'd like to think we were able to tap into in 1992" on the Bill Clinton campaign.

Wilhelm's support brings benefits for Obama.

He is a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, which means Obama is now one vote closer to the party nomination.

Wilhelm is well-known in Democratic circles, and will lobby other superdelegates, who are the party insiders and elected officials not chosen by state primaries or caucuses, to support Obama.

He also brings a strategic knowledge of the political landscape in Ohio, a state set to play a crucial role in the Democratic nominating process when it holds its primary on March 4.

Obama has scored 8 consecutive wins against Clinton in nomination contests since last weekend and now leads her in the number of the national convention delegates.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)