« Iraqi Mortality Studies | Main | Delegate Count Revised » Obama Endorsements10 Jan 2008 10:06 am He's picking up John Kerry, George Miller, and Tim Johnson as supporters. Johnson is, to me, the most interesting one of the batch. Obama partisans like to argue that he'll be better for downballot Democrats in tough races. That's a hard thing to prove one way or the other, but Johnson's one of the affected parties in this dispute so his judgment counts for something. UPDATE: See also this post reflecting on Obama's endorsements from the likes of Ted Kennedy. Comments (20)
Dan the Man has it right on Johnson, but I do think that the wave of Obama endorsements bodes very well for him. Both Obama and Hillary are something of a gamble -- she, because she'd be polarizing and isn't especially well-liked; he, because he's untested in both campaigning and substantive terms. The endorsements show that significant parts of the party establishment, having "dated" both, are being put more in the mood of "marrying" Obama than Hillary. Obviously, Hillary still has significant reservoirs of establishment support, but a lot of that is from the "inevitability" days when getting on the Hillary bandwagon seemed like the smart play. Now that it's genuinely a jump-ball between Obama and Clinton, the fact that the establishment sees this as their best chance to line up behind Obama means that they see him as the less risky bet. 
What did Hillary have to promise Kerry to get him to endorse Obama instead of her?
Having John Kerry is no particular gain. Does he represent change too? How does he reinforce Obama's message?
Tom Daschle is Obama's mentor and thus Tim Johnson, Daschle's South Dakota apprentice, endorses Obama. Daschle brought a lot of money Obama's way.
Now that it's genuinely a jump-ball between Obama and Clinton, the fact that the establishment sees this as their best chance to line up behind Obama means that they see him as the less risky bet. I think its simply means they see an opportunity to get out from under the yoke of the hated Clintons (they've got lots of enemies, after all) and are jumping at the opportunity. One more question: what state does kerry help Obama win? Massachusetts, if you're talking primaries.
Jasper, that certainly may be part of it. But anything that reinforces the image of Hillary as part of "The House of Clinton" and takes credibility *away* from the image of her as out there on her own must help Obama.
I know Al "Nobel Prize- Howard Dean 2004" Gore thinks he is above all that now but I seriously would resent him staying on the sidelines much further. Kerry solidifies MA in the Barack column (Deval Patrick was the first get there) but what would be awesome would be Sen. Kennedy. Not only because that definitely would put him over in MA but that would sort of solidify that Kennedy mystique people sense around Obama (whether that is true or should be relevant is another issue).
Losing to GWBush has to pin one as one of history's all time losers. At least Gore won the election, but then had the presidency stolen from him by five Republicans on the Supreme Court. But what is Kerry's excuse for actually losing to the worst president in American history? An illegitimate one at that? He must have been flattered to have been asked by Obama for his endorsement but once again he shows his total lack of political acumen with this endorsment.
A Tom Daschle protege? Impressive. Lieberman, Daschle -- what's not to like? And now I see where the magical unity pony is heading: Let's bring the Democratic Party back to its roots in the great days of 2002... As far as Kerry goes, IIRC Edwards wanted to fight the Ohio vote, and Kerry -- amusingly, after collecting the money for the challenge -- capitulated. Kerry loves the unity pony!
Well Bill's lackluster down-ballot performance weighs pretty strongly against HRC in my mind. Bill got elected with not even a majority and not much by way of coat tails. Then of course, he helped lose the whole Congress to Republicans. To me, getting 5 or 6 more Democrats in the Senate is at least as important as winning the Presidency. It's about 10,000 times more important than whether the Democratic President is Obama, Clinton or Edwards.
While not pleased with how Sen. Kerry seemed unable to defend himself on the campaign trail, he did win Ohio and would have become President. Check with your Secretary of State to make sure that electronic voting machines are getting thrown out with the "spoiled" votes of 2000 and 2004 in your state. www.blackboxvoting.org Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry don't hold much respect with me because they couldn't stand up for themselves when it mattered most. I believe that history books will one day print how stolen elections resulted in the installation of a false President whose actions and policies led to a grim start of the 21st Century. Viva Obama!
I can't agree with the Kerry snark; while he ran a bad campaign, an awful lot of people did vote for the guy, more than ever voted for Bill Clinton. I think it's newsworthy that Kerry endorsed Obama while Edwards was still in the race; or maybe it's more that Kerry was waiting until Edwards was shown to be nonviable to do it. I do agree about the Tim Johnson endorsement--it does say something that a Democratic senator up for re-election in a red state is not only not running away from Obama, but embracing him. Message: Hillary is worse for me than Obama would be.
an awful lot of people did vote for the guy, more than ever voted for Bill Clinton Those were people who would've voted for any Democrat. But yeah, good point re: Edwards. We knew there was no love lost there, but still.
I do agree about the Tim Johnson endorsement--it does say something that a Democratic senator up for re-election in a red state is not only not running away from Obama, but embracing him. Message: Hillary is worse for me than Obama would be. It'll be his first election campaign that coincides with a presidential election, so he'll have to deal with the likelihood of split tickets. There was all sorts of funny business in 2002, with the execrable Thune accusing Johnson of rigging the Native American vote. (Josh Marshall reported on it at the time.) And since Obama has been big on anti-voter suppression law, and voter suppression under the auspices of 'vote fraud' will be part of the GOP strategy in 2008, there are even more connections.
As Sullivan noted, doesn't the Geroge Miller endorsement signify that Pelosi is backing Obama as well?
I think Hillary's endorsement by Karl Rove in the WSJ is as big as any. He's obviously a fan.
The first reporter to use Kerry not endorsing Edwards to on a "Remember when Gore didn't endorese Joementum OMH TEH HORROR!!!!" spiel gets a punch in the face.
Nope... Kerry is the big name. Kerry got the second most votes of any candidate in history. But the big thing is, Obama gets Kerry`s mailing list. He can use the mailing list to build extremely potent organizations in states where his presence has been thus far minimal.
For those of you who didn't see it at Sullivan's blog, Ned Lamont just endorsed Obama. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/10/184519/630/624/434646
Comments closed January 24, 2008. |
Search
Subscribe to this blog by Email Books by Matthew Yglesias
Recent Comments
Recent Posts
Weekly Archives
Categories
|
Copyright © 2008 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
| 
Heads in the Sand
That's a hard thing to prove one way or the other, but Johnson's one of the affected parties in this dispute so his judgment counts for something.
According to JMM at Talking Points Memo, the real reason is because "Remember, Obama has strong ties to the Daschle world. And Johnson is Daschle's protege."
Posted by Dan the Man | January 10, 2008 10:16 AM