Carter strongly hints he supports Obama

April 21, 2008
JERUSALEM (AFP)

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBkVJyqBsExLiiwX3Bj_HvwoupfQ

Former US President Jimmy Carter declined to endorse either candidate on the eve of Pennsylvania's Democratic primary but strongly hinted that he supported Illinois Senator Barak Obama.

"As a superdelegate, I think I ought to stay as flexible as I can, but I obviously observe what goes on around me," Carter told reporters in Jerusalem as he wrapped up a Middle East tour in which he drew fire from Washington and Israel for meeting with leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement.

"My little town of Plains voted for Obama, and as you know my state of Georgia voted for Obama, and all of my children, all of my grandchildren, and all of their spouses are for Obama... That's as far as I've gone."

Carter said he has already made his decision but would not announce it until at least June 3, after the last primaries have been held.

The former US president who held office from 1977 to 1981, is one of some 800 super-delegates who can choose to back either Obama or New York Senator Hillary Clinton any time before the party convention August 25-58.

But he said "it would be unlikely, to put it mildly, that the super-delegates would reverse a decision that had been made on the popular vote, the number of states, and the delegates."

Carter, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and the architect of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, on Monday concluded a tour of the region that took him to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.