The new Camelot?
There's definitely some notable symbolic elements to the endorsement of Barack Obama by Sen. Ted Kennedy and the poignant essay in his favor by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, but the larger point is what this brings to the Obama campaign with regard to delegates.
Ted Kennedy is arguably the statesman of the Democratic Party, and he brings considerable influence to the table. His endorsement means he's going to work his colleagues and political networks to get the superdelegates to support Obama ... because that's the real battle now. Obama has the potential to close the gap, if not win, in California, win big in the South and his home state of Illinois, and play it close enough to split delegates in the remaining states. With Kennedy on his side, as well as a coalition of red state officials, he can make a serious run at the nomination now.
In fact, with the exception of President Bill Clinton and Al Gore, there are few Democratic officials with enough internal clout as Kennedy. So, yes, symbolically this is significant, but as far as inside baseball, this is huge.
Ted Kennedy is arguably the statesman of the Democratic Party, and he brings considerable influence to the table. His endorsement means he's going to work his colleagues and political networks to get the superdelegates to support Obama ... because that's the real battle now. Obama has the potential to close the gap, if not win, in California, win big in the South and his home state of Illinois, and play it close enough to split delegates in the remaining states. With Kennedy on his side, as well as a coalition of red state officials, he can make a serious run at the nomination now.
In fact, with the exception of President Bill Clinton and Al Gore, there are few Democratic officials with enough internal clout as Kennedy. So, yes, symbolically this is significant, but as far as inside baseball, this is huge.
posted by Jmac at 9:04 PM
3 Comments:
In an ideal world, Ted Kennedy would be up for parole right about now...
Reggie
This also helps potentially to deliver Massachusetts for Obama. The Kennedys are still major league up there and previously Clinton had a massive lead in the state.
Gore is the big kahuna of endorsements, though. I really really wish he'd go ahead and endorse before Feb 5th.
Caroline's essay was powerful. But I always had assumed that the Kennedys were allies of the Clintons. After all, they and their neigbhors did play host to the Clintons during some pretty trying times in the late 90's at Martha's Vineyard.
So in my mind this is indeed huge. I still think Hillary is going to run very strong on Feb. 5th though.
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