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AN on-the-ropes Hillary Clinton has suffered another blow, with a key strategist who helped put her husband in the White House revealing he is backing Barack Obama for president.

David Wilhelm, national manager of Bill Clinton`s 1992 campaign and a former Democrat National Committee chairman, yesterday endorsed senator Obama, who is vying to be the first African-American US president.

"The only reason this race appears to be closer than it actually is is the number of superdelegates (Democratic Party officials and former leaders) that bought into senator Clinton`s inevitability early.

Senator Obama, who has been accumulating high profile endorsements from leading Democrats, yesterday attempted to add more policy detail to his campaign pitches when he announced a $US210 billion ($230 billion) blueprint over 10 years to create jobs to lift the struggling economy.

Now he is making a concerted pitch to woo working-class voters away from senator Clinton after this week making inroads into her support base with women.

The two candidates go head-to-head again next week in the nominating contests for Wisconsin and Hawaii. But the real battle will be on March 4 in the big states of Texas and Ohio. Senator Clinton, who is strong in these states, will need to win to keep her hopes alive.

Texas is shaping as her last stand unless she can blunt senator Obama`s momentum.

He has now notched up eight victories in a row and taken the lead in the all-important count of delegates that will decide the party`s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Both candidates remain well short of the 2025 delegates needed to get across the line.

Senator Obama`s team yesterday said he led by 136 pledged delegates and the race appeared closer because Senator Clinton had more support from superdelegates.

The 796 superdelegates can shift their allegiance any time before the convention.

The Obama team said it was "next to impossible" for senator Clinton to overtake senator Obama in pledged delegates.

"The only way she could do it is by winning the rest of the contests by 25 to 30 points. Even the most creative math does not get her back," he said.

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