Bill Clinton urges superdelegates to be patient

Former President Clinton told delegates to the state Democratic Convention today that the party’s superdelegates and activists should be patient in selecting a presidential nominee and let the primary election process play out in the coming months.

A vigorous campaign between his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is not going to damage the party’s prospects of beating the Republican nominee in the fall, Clinton said.

“Don’t let anybody tell you that somehow we are weakening the Democratic Party,” Clinton said. “Chill out and let everybody have their say. We are going to win this election.”

Before his speech, the former president met privately with more than a dozen superdelegates who will vote at the national Democratic Party convention in August on the party’s nominee.

He made a similar pitch that they not deny voters in other states the right to have their primary elections count by deciding prematurely on the nominee, several superdelegates said. Of California’s 71 superdelegates, about 21 have not declared a favorite, party officials say.

The Obama campaign declined to send a national figure to San Jose to counter the former president but called on San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, one of his California co-chairs, to speak on his behalf.

“It is Barack Obama who has the ability to bring our nation together,” said Harris, a rising star in the Democratic Party and the state’s first African-American district attorney. “Barack Obama will be the president who finally ends the era of fear that has been used to divide and demoralize our country.”

richard.paddock@latimes.com