Hillary Clinton received a badly needed boost to her presidential campaign yesterday with the endorsement of Iowa’s biggest newspaper, a vote of confidence that followed days of lobbying by her husband.

As she embarked on a tour of Iowa only 18 days before the state begins America’s nominating process, The Des Moines Register cited her experience and readiness for the presidency, Mrs Clinton’s core argument against her main rival Barack Obama.

The endorsement was sought by all the main campaigns – the Register plumped for John McCain among the Republicans – and comes at a pivotal moment in the race for the Democratic nomination. In the past month Mr Obama has seized the momentum from Mrs Clinton, whose aura of invincibility has gone after a series of stumbles and allegations of dirty tricks by her staff. The newspaper said that Mr Obama “inspired our imagination. But it was Clinton who inspired our confidence.”

The Register praised Mr Obama highly, but concluded: “Yet, with his relative inexperience, it’s hard to feel as confident he could accomplish the daunting agenda ahead.” The newspaper’s backing is not always decisive but it was a rare piece of good news for Mrs Clinton after a bruising month. Last week the Clintons met the Register senior management over cocktails and appetisers at a smart Des Moines restaurant. Bill Clinton later spent an hour arguing his wife’s case in the office of its editor. He followed that up with a telephone call.

Mr Obama has opened up a small lead in Iowa over Mrs Clinton and the other main contender there, John Edwards. Of far greater concern to Mrs Clinton is that Mr Obama has wiped out her once-huge lead in the second nominating state of New Hampshire, which had been regarded as a firewall for her.

He received an added boost yesterday with the endorsement of The Boston Globe, a newspaper popular with Democrats across the border in New Hampshire.

In a sign of how rattled the Clinton campaign has become, Mr Clinton, on a political talk show on Friday night, made an unusually blunt attack on Mr Obama, suggesting that voters who support him were willing to “roll the dice” on the presidency.

He repeatedly questioned Mr Obama’s readiness for the White House, comparing him at one point to nothing more than a “gifted television commentator”.

For all Mr Obama’s recent momentum, the race in Iowa remains wide open.

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