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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (75878)	1/13/2008 11:33:40 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Josh Marshall observes that these various senatorial endorsements of Obama may be more significant than the common sense view suggests... talkingpointsmemo.com --------- Those Endorsements ... Endorsements don't usually count for much. But if they're big enough and come at critical moments they can count for a lot. And this string of endorsements Obama has picked up since his narrow defeat in New Hampshire four days ago is, I believe, a major story that has not gotten the attention it deserves. Since losing the New Hampshire primary four days ago, Obama has been endorsed by Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Gov. Janet Napolitano (D-AZ). Additionally, he's also been endorsed by Rep. Miller (D-CA), Sen. Kerry (D-MA) and Ned Lamont. But they're in a slightly different category and it's the first four I want to discuss. The first of these came from Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) who put out word he'd be endorsing Obama the day after New Hampshire. Johnson is a protege of former Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). And Daschle has close ties to Obama -- a lot of operatives in the Daschle world went to Obama after 2004. So when I saw word of the endorsement I figured this was something Daschle or his former staffers had helped put together to help stabilize Obama's fortunes after the New Hampshire loss. But now you have three others -- Nelson, Napolitano and McCaskill. Nelson and Johnson are from very red states while Napolitano and McCaskill are from swing states. Now, there are a bunch of things you can draw from this spate of endorsements. One is that these folks don't seem worried about themselves running or having their supporters run with Obama at the top of the ticket. And these are people from either very conservative or somewhat conservative states. Despite the fact that Obama is running in some ways to the right of Clinton (at least tonally, as the candidate of unity and bipartisan reconcilation), there are still a lot of questions inevitably being asked about whether the country is 'ready' for Obama, whether that's his race, his name, his background in community organizing, his youth, etc. So these folks think America's ready; in fact, more ready than they are for Hillary. But that isn't the biggest significance. The key is timing. You don't hit a big time politician like Hillary Clinton when she's down unless you're really against her and you're fairly confident she's not getting back up. After winning in New Hampshire, albeit narrowly and after the clobbering in Iowa, there's been a sense that Clinton may be back on track to consolidating her frontrunner status and perhaps following a modified version of the standard script in which the anointed frontrunner gets a scare in the early states before mopping up the competition as the race goes national. But these four clearly don't want that to happen. In fact, they're sticking their necks pretty far out to help make it not happen. And their endorsements, coming right now, tell me they have some confidence it won't. --Josh Marshall Message 24209183

To: TigerPaw who wrote (75878)	1/13/2008 11:41:15 AM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

The New Hampshire vote was fair and square. The exit polls matched the final results. My take on it is that upscale whites, downscale whites and women (which are 95% of the voters) decided bnot to coronate Obama yet just because of the Iowa buzz and hype. And let's keep this in perspective. Obama only beat Edwards by 5% with the help of anti-Hillary Republicans. It was not an overwhelming victory. It was very impressive but not decisive. BTW, the same thing happened in Iowa to Hillary as people decideed not to coronate her there, and on the GOP side dissing frontrunner Romney. People this year don't want to be told who the inevitable frontrunner is. That's a turn off.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (75878)	1/13/2008 1:02:35 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

OBAMA: CLINTON MLK COMMENTS 'LUDICROUS' firstread.msnbc.msn.com Posted: Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:33 AM From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan: Obama called the "notion" that his campaign is responsible for the backlash Hillary Clinton has faced about her comments on Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in the in the civil rights movement "ludicrous" in a conference call today to announce the endorsement of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. "Well this is fascinating to me," Obama began of Clinton's remarks on Meet the Press, in which she accused the Obama campaign of stirring the pot among African-American leaders about her remarks that it "took a president" to pass civil rights legislation. Obama characterized Clinton's remarks as "tired Washington politicians and the games they play." "She made an unfortunate remark about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “I haven't remarked on it. And she offended some folks who thought she diminished the role about King and the civil rights movement. The notion that this is our doing is ludicrous.” Obama went on to criticize Clinton's interview, saying that she spent an hour focused on attacking him rather than "telling people about her positive vision for America." During the interview, Clinton accused of Obama of waffling on his opposition to the war after arriving in the Senate. He said that he had "absolutely" and "unambiguously" opposed the war "at a time when she didn't read the intelligence reports." Clinton also criticized the ethics bill that Obama helped pass through the senate, pointing to the provision that allows lobbyists to buy politicians meals if they are eating standing up rather than sitting down. In response to Clinton's comments on ethics reform, Obama said, "She belittled the most sweeping ethic reform since Watergate," and accused Clinton of standing on the "sidelines" instead of trying to help get it passed. "She started this campaign saying she wanted to make history but lately she's been rewriting it," he added. McCaskill, who was also on the call, and had spoken about why she was supporting Obama, jumped to the Obama’s defense. "Belittling this legislation is not appropriate," McCaskill said. She went on to tell an apocryphal tale of how as a freshman senator, Obama had held a conference call with her and others entering the senate and asked them for their help on the legislation. Describing the opposition to the bill as a "lot of wink wink nod nod" from older senators, McCaskill said that the legislation had problems but did much to curb improprieties, especially on the use of corporate jets. On why she was endorsing Obama, McCaskill cribbed a line from his stump speech, calling his run part of the "fierce urgency of now." She said her 18-year-old daughter had convinced her that she shouldn't sit on the bleachers any longer and should make an endorsement. Saying that she felt that Obama was right for this historical moment and the challenges the country faced at this time, she had decided to support him despite her strong connection to Emily's List and many female politicians and backers who were supporting Senator Clinton. She acknowledged that she had delayed her endorsement mostly for that reason, and had finally decided to endorse after many long conversations with people at Emily's List and across the country. McCaskill’s endorsement of Obama is worthy of raised eyebrows, since she benefited from the strong support of Emily's List and other organizations that help women run for office in her 2006 race to unseat former Sen. Jim Talent in Missouri. As a Feb. 5th state, Missouri will play a role in the nominating contests, and McCaskill's endorsement and voters' familiarity with Obama since the two states share a border and media markets, may help him there. Obama said he would try to get to Missouri before the 5th. The call ended in a motherly way, with McCaskill saying, "Barack I want you to get some rest."