Sen. Barack Obama's fourth Senator in a week: it's Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont.
« The Atlantic's Boldest | Main | I'm A Twit(ter) » Obama's Latest Senator Endorsement17 Jan 2008 10:41 am Comments (17)
Can Gore be far behind? 
I think Gore might wait until right before February 5 to endorse anyone. His endorsement will mean more at that point.
Will Russ Feingold be next?
I think these politician-politician endorsements, particularly in Washington, have less to do with influencing the voting public and are merely a way to pre-emptively jockey for influence in the event your guy or gal actually wins. They're telegraphing "Hey, I'll work with you, I'll be on your team if you want me".
So he has worked in the US Senate for 2 years and she has for 6. Why is he picking up endorsements from the liberal and the conservative democrats? Because he can bring people together. They know that Hillary means the END of the democratic congress and more of the same bickering for years.
I lived in vermont a good long while.
Michael C. wrote "It's strictly political survival for Leahy to back Obama here just the same as it was survival for him to switch parties." Quick fact check: Pat Leahy has never switched parties. He's been a Democrat his entire career. It took me 30 seconds of digging to disprove that assertion. You lived in VT how long again?
This is significant because now he is running the political spectrum in support from red state to blue state. it would be interesting if bernie sanders endorsed him (as an independent). bernie is of course a difference kind of indepedent than some of those who have been voting for obama, but it would send a strong signal. of course if even a single republican senator or ex-senator endorsed obama it would be very very significant for his message. It is also significant because Leahy didn't have to do this--it seems he just wanted to. The next big endorsement is not Gore but Biden and Dodd.
I think the endorsements that matter most are the ones that come from people who have worked with both candidates. If Hillary is so great, and her experience in the Senate is supposed to be so valuable, why are so many of her peers favoring less-experienced Obama? Patrick Leahy stands to gain very little by choosing either candidate. He's quite old, he's not running for higher office, and he seems to be concerned mainly with upholding the law and defending the constitution from folks in the executive branch who are power-crazed. So why is he picking Obama? To me, it suggests that Leahy actually respects him more than he respects Hillary, and that means far more than the endorsement of someone who is lobbying for a cabinet position or greasing the wheels for other selfish purposes. Gore's endorsement, for example, could be taken as a job application or a diss of Hillary (if he goes with Obama). It's endorsements like Leahy that actually say something.
I wonder how much of this is designed by Axelrod and Company to get that free press every newscycle. He is slow-rolling all the endorsements out and simply dominating the news. Smart, if that's the case. I do think the red-stater endorsements matter more though. I'm from Wisconsin and I can tell you that the Feingold endorsement would matter here -- especially in the Madison area. Obama will win Milwaukee.
I think these politician-politician endorsements, particularly in Washington, have less to do with influencing the voting public and are merely a way to pre-emptively jockey for influence in the event your guy or gal actually wins. They're telegraphing "Hey, I'll work with you, I'll be on your team if you want me". Yeah, but you have to consider the flip-side of these endorsements: it's like saying to the non-endorsed candidate, "Hey, I don't like you, don't bother asking me to be on your team if you win". When the nomination is still up for grabs (like it is now), endorsements are big risks. Why would people like Leahy/McCaskill/Napolitano want to take that risk if it wasn't to try to influence the electorate? If they were only concerned with influence they would stay neutral until the nomination is sewn up.
Michael C., did you go to UVM and spend four years drunk off your ass at Nector's? Jeffords left the Republican Party (and he didn't join the Dems), you moron.
It’s the down ticket races Senators and Congresspersons are worried about. In swing districts Hillary as the nominee would be a disaster and everyone knows it but few have the guts to say it. Half of America wouldn’t vote for her and it’s no secret. But why do democrats pretend its not true. My guess they don't want to tell her. Why do you think Pelosi's guy endorsed Obama? She is a smart woman and realizes with Clinton on the ticket she may lose her role as majority leader..
It's strictly political survival for Leahy to back Obama here just the same as it was survival for him to switch parties. Political survival? Leahy won't be up for reelection until 2010, and in 2004, he was elected with 70.5 percent of the vote. I don't think he's in too much danger. OK, I admit it, I'm only posting this because Clay and pls both beat me to the really egregious mistake.
Can it be that Hillary's Senate colleagues don't like her very much?
fact is more senators have endorsed Hillary than have endorsed Obama. Mikulski, Feinstein, Cantwell, Murray, Bill Nelson, Debbie Stabenow, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, Schumer of course, Boxer will soon. That's the reality.
|
Subscribe to this blog by Email Twitter || On Facebook || QIK Live Channel  Recent Posts
Monthly Archives
|
| 
Copyright © 2008 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
It's interesting that he continues to pick up these major endorsements. I guess everyone who was going to endorse Hillary did so at the start, while everyone else was waiting to emerge as her challenger.
Posted by Mike | January 17, 2008 10:56 AM