Hillary Clinton for Supreme Court?

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By Christina Bellantoni

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's most loyal supporters here say they have a new reason to back the man who dashed her presidential hopes: They want Sen. Barack Obama to appoint her to the U.S. Supreme Court if he wins the White House.

"I would have liked to see her win, but I'm not wistful," said Grace Block, 77. "We'd love to see her on the Supreme Court if he would ask her."

Voters attending Mrs. Clinton's homecoming rally, a campaign event for her one-time rival, said they will now back Mr. Obama, and most of them, unprompted, told The Washington Times they want him to choose their former first lady for the high court.

"Having her on the Supreme Court would help us a lot. She could make sure we cement Roe v. Wade," said Judi Woods, a Little Rock supporter who campaigned for Mrs. Clinton across the country during the prolonged primary.

The last time Mrs. Clinton was in Little Rock in January, before the Super Tuesday primaries, she was lauded by locals as the woman who would remember Arkansas when - not if - she reached the White House.

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Obama gaining in Midwest

Sen. Barack Obama holds a solid lead in Iowa, a slim lead in Missouri and barely trails Republican Sen. John McCain in Indiana three states that backed President Bush in 2004 and represent 29 electoral votes, more than enough to make up Republicans' margin of victory last time.

During the rally Friday on the steps of the state Capitol here, Gov. Mike Beebe introduced Mrs. Clinton as "Arkansas' First Lady," and noted her 69 percent Feb. 5 victory, her largest primary margin.

"Senator Obama, we brought with us a special person," Mr. Beebe said. "It's somebody you know well because she took you all the way to the mat ... somebody who will be an ally for you in the halls of the United States Senate, speaking out with a voice loud and clear for those who could otherwise not speak for themselves."

Mrs. Clinton also nodded to her own primary showing as an "unbelievable percentage," thanking her old friends who worked on her behalf.

"But I am here today to ask you, ask all of you who worked for me, all of you who voted for me, to do the same for Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the next weeks," she said.