PRESIDENT CLINTON: WIFE MUST WIN TEXAS AND OHIO

President Clinton cast his wife’s chances for the Democratic nomination in plain terms yesterday: She must win Texas and Ohio, or else. “If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she’ll be the nominee,” Mr. Clinton told a rally in Beaumont, Texas, according to ABC News. “If you don’t deliver for her, then I don’t think she can be. It’s all on you.” Senator Obama of Illinois has won the past 10 contests over the former first lady and has increased his lead in delegates. Advisers to Senator Clinton stopped just short of making the same declaration yesterday in a conference call with reporters. “I’m not going to make any Namathesque predictions, but they are critically, critically important,” a spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said of Texas and Ohio.

McCAIN CRITICIZES OBAMA ON PUBLIC FINANCING

Senator McCain is stepping up his criticism of Mr. Obama for backing off a commitment to public financing in the general election, deriding as “Washington doublespeak” the Democrat’s plan to seek a condition-laden agreement with the likely Republican nominee. “I committed to public financing. He committed to public financing,” Mr. McCain told reporters in Ohio yesterday. “It’s not any more complicated than that. I’ll keep my word, and I want him to keep his.” Public financing would limit how much the candidates could spend in the election, and by participating in the program Mr. Obama could give away much of the fund-raising advantage he has built during the campaign.

ENDORSEMENT WATCH

Mr. Obama secured the endorsement yesterday of the 1.4 million member Teamsters Union, giving him a boost among working class voters that have been part of Mrs. Clinton’s core constituency. “He is the candidate in the best position to lead our movement to restore the American dream for working people in this country,” the Teamsters president, James Hoffa, said in a statement. The endorsement was announced following a meeting in Austin, Texas, and a month-long process that included scientific member polls and other surveys and deliberations, the union said.

MICHELLE OBAMA CLARIFIES REMARKS ON PRIDE IN AMERICA

Campaigning for her husband in Rhode Island yesterday, Michelle Obama sought to clarify comments she made on Monday in which she said the current presidential campaign represented the first time in her “adult life” that she was proud of America. “What I was clearly talking about is that I am proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process,” she told WJAR-TV in Providence. Mrs. Obama said she was referring to record turnout in the primaries and caucuses, as well as strong ratings for televised debates. “For the first time in my lifetime, I am seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven’t seen and really trying to figure this out, and that’s the source of pride I was talking about,” she said.

On Tuesday, Mr. McCain’s wife, Cindy, called attention to the comments, saying, ” I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you, if you heard those words earlier—I am very proud of my country.”

NEW GROUP FORMS TO BOOST CLINTON CANDIDACY

Wealthy supporters of Mrs. Clinton’s presidential bid are seeking to revive her candidacy through a new organization which will accept large donations, the American Leadership Project. The group, registered with the IRS on Friday, wants to raise $10 million for pro-Clinton television ads to run in key states like Ohio and Texas, ABC News and the Atlantic magazine reported. “If speeches could create jobs, we wouldn’t be facing a recession, but it takes more,” an ad released on the Web said yesterday. The organization was put together by Democratic political operatives in California and is required to remain independent from the Clinton campaign. Mr. Obama’s campaign said the group’s status is legally murky. A similar organization has already spent millions to aid Mr. Obama.