Kerry Picks Obama

Sen. John Kerry will endorse Sen. Barack Obama at 11:00 a.m. in Charleston, two Democratic sources say.

Within the past 24 hours, Obama's also been endorsed by Rep. George Miller, the consiglieri to the Speaker of the House, and by Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD).

Comments

One wonders if this is good thing: there's a lot of buyer's remorse out there about nominating Kerry in 2004; doesn't this immediately open up an avenue for Obama's opponents to slag Obama's general election prospects by association?

Posted by dry_fish | January 10, 2008 9:47 AM

Don't Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer both rent rooms in George Miller's house in DC? Would love to have been a fly on the wall during the Durbin-Schumer fight over Miller's endorsement. I bet Chuck is really not going to want to clean his room now...

Posted by Dave | January 10, 2008 9:59 AM

I cannot see how this helps that much. This is starting to remind me of when Dean starting piling up endorsements in 2004.

However, I am thinking there will be more endorsements. I think there are a lot of Dems (especially in the liberal wing of the party) who would like to end the era of Clinton control of the Democratic party.

Posted by FPM | January 10, 2008 11:02 AM

This is big if it is followed by endorsements by other established Senators in other key states--Kennedy obviously--as well as Gore. It gives him surrogates, makes lists available, gives superdelegates pause, and most importantly shows that there is not unanimity within the establishment. It also forces the party to reject Obama in favor not of the establishment, but specifically of the Clinton establishment. NH may actually become a boon to Obama if he comes to be seen as the underdog, but not an interloper. Wonder how much Gibbs had to do with this.

Posted by JC | January 10, 2008 11:21 AM

If Kerry wanted to help Obama he would have endorsed Clinton.

Kerry still reaks of loser stink from '04, and from the comments he made about kids being stuck in Iraq (unfairly, granted). Oh and he stood there and watched that kid get tasered.

Posted by Dickie Flatts | January 10, 2008 11:42 AM

JC is right, particularly about the surrogate factor. When Bill Clinton fiercely, and falsely, attacks Obama, as he did in NH, Obama shouldn't be alone in fighting back. It's more powerful to have a chorus of experienced liberals telling Bill to shut up.

On another blog, someone commented "Ah, Kerry will only help with liberal Democrats." I think he was being snarky. Guess who votes in the Dem primaries! Even in NH, 56% were self-identified liberals. A majority of the Feb 5 voters will be liberals.

Posted by Anonymous | January 10, 2008 11:49 AM

The primary area where these endorsements help is that these guys are some of the Superdelegates, so their endorsements would also qualify as delegates for Obama.

This is the part that usually is missed: Obama may have "lost" to Clinton in NH, but they received the same number of delegates. Delegates are what it's all about.

Posted by Heath | January 10, 2008 12:08 PM

And anew poll from South Carolina has Obama up big post-NH which should reassure him that there is no NH bounce.

Posted by Dan | January 10, 2008 12:57 PM

These endorsements didn't materialize overnight. That means Obama was sitting on them before New Hampshire.

What an over confident, inexperienced, cocky Chicago pol Obama is. Kerry could have actually helped Obama in N.H. He does Obama zero good in SC. Were rich Boston liberals are not warmly embraced.

Obama blew a 9 point lead in 2 days and didn't pull the trigger on endorsements that could have helped him.

Posted by Dickie Flatts | January 10, 2008 3:23 PM

The Rove endorsement of Hillary today in the WSJ was HUGE.

Posted by Marlo Johnston | January 10, 2008 4:02 PM