Governor Spitzer’s declared support for Senator Clinton isn’t stopping him from expressing admiration for the “phenomenon” that he says is Barack Obama.

Mr. Spitzer, who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last year, said yesterday he thinks the junior senator from New York has run a “great campaign” and predicted she will eventually secure the Democratic nomination.

“Having said that, what we have seen with Barack Obama is a phenomenon,” Mr. Spitzer said yesterday, participating in a live call-in radio show in Albany.

“It’s not so much a campaign as it has become a movement. It’s been good for democracy, even if it has made Hillary’s efforts more challenging,” he said in reply to a question posed by the show’s host, Alan Chartock.

While Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has struggled to regain momentum in the face of Mr. Obama’s recent electoral winning streak, Mr. Spitzer said you “have to take pride in the process that can take somebody who was unknown just a couple of years ago and transform him into a national candidate and almost an international phenomenon so quickly.”

He added that Mr. Obama has been a “spectacular” and “very powerful” voice for Democrats and said a Democratic ticket of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama would be “awfully appealing.”

Mr. Spitzer, along with the rest of the Democratic leadership in the state, endorsed Mrs. Clinton in May.

Since then, he has made very few appearances with the senator. In contrast, New York’s lieutenant governor, David Paterson, who has expressed a hope to replace Mrs. Clinton as senator should she be elected, flew to Iowa to campaign with the senator before the caucuses.

Mr. Spitzer, however, managed to become a factor in the race late last year when during a debate, Mrs. Clinton straddled while giving her opinion of the governor’s plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Some political observers believe the senator’s performance marked a turning point in her campaign, after which she gradually lost her status as front-runner.

Mr. Spitzer’s hour-long appearance on the talk show was a rare opportunity for the public to ask him questions directly.

While more than half of New York voters disapproves of the governor’s job performance, most of the callers, which were screened by the station, WAMC/Northeast Public Radio, gave Mr. Spitzer a friendly reception.

They generally avoided touchy subjects, such as the ongoing investigations of the administration’s use of state police in an attempt to discredit the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, whom Mr. Spitzer described as his “good friend.”

One caller expressed anguish over the rise of her property taxes. Mr. Spitzer reiterated his support for a cap on local property taxes. Another asked Mr. Spitzer if he would lower the big-game hunting age in New York to 13 from 16. The governor said he would study the issue.

A physician from Saratoga Springs asked if he supported a single-payer health insurance system like the one Canada uses. “I’m not persuaded that it’s going to be the universal care structure that we embrace,” the governor said.

At another point, Mr. Spitzer said a Democratic take-over of the Senate would increase the likelihood of passage of a bill legalizing gay marriage.