Monday, January 14, 2008
Will Bill Richardson make an endorsement?
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
In an article titled “Clinton, Obama search for heroes in ‘super delegates'” [I could have sworn there was another major contender for the nomination], the LA Times discusses the race for former candidate Bill Richardson’s endorsement:
Erstwhile presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson looms as a trophy endorsement. The candidate who reels in Richardson gets a super delegate and a high-profile Latino who has the loyalty of New Mexico state lawmakers and donors — all rolled into one.
The report last week that he was dropping out of the Democratic presidential race had barely moved on the wire services when Richardson’s phone rang. It was the Clintons, looking for his endorsement. Phone calls from Obama and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina came soon afterward.
“There’s a massive push for endorsements,” Richardson, who hasn’t committed himself, said in an interview. “It’s gone pretty far.”
and here’s some color on how Obama got McCaskill’s endorsement:
Sen. Claire McCaskill was another prize. The Missouri Democrat had been holding out, opting to stay neutral during the campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire. Her hesitation was in part a courtesy to Clinton. In the spring, she said, she had her first real face-to-face conversation with Clinton when the two met for lunch. Clinton knew that McCaskill leaned toward Obama but asked for a favor: Would she at least hold off and make no endorsement?
McCaskill agreed to wait.
But in recent weeks, Obama’s campaign had been in touch, asking if she’d take a call from the candidate and hear his pitch. McCaskill said there was no need. She considered Obama a friend and was grateful that he had campaigned for her in 2006, helping her get to the Senate. Plus, her children like him and had been nagging her to endorse. So on Sunday morning she made her announcement.
“It was really just now or never,” McCaskill, also a super delegate, said in an interview. “If I wanted to try and make a difference, obviously it was do it now or stay on the sidelines until the nominee was decided.”
You can just imagine that the superdelegates, especially the well-known ones, are starting to get lots of pressure from the campaigns to make an endorsement.
Posted by Matt at 11:07 PM 
Rock on Senator McCaskill!
As far as the good governor from New Mexico, perhaps he’ll step in following the Nevada results?
The way that Bill and Hill have been trying to stop the Culinary Union from being able to vote at their workplace (and please, don’t anyone suggest they’re not behind that low-down law suit in anyway)- has made me SICK.
I wish that they would have asked Clinton at the debate last night if they she would be making such a stink if she had won the endorsement.
NBC (of course) didn’t touch that question.
Off topic: What a great job you all are doing on this website! Beee-utiful!
The super delegate concept is inherently undemocratic coming as it did in the wake of the democratization of the delegate selection process in the sixties and early seventies.
That more commentary is not made on this elementary point is sad.
With two 100 million dollar candidates exemplifying the power of the mainstream media to define political reality in the minds of millions of viewers, I mean, voters, the cheapening of our democracy continues.
But it’s time to swap our insiders for theirs.
Carry on, then.
Might be worth revisiting this again, as CNN reports:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/26/richardson-endorsement-could-come-within-days/