Joe Andrew's endorsement and message to the remaining super delegates to join him in supporting Barack Obama yesterday was tremendous. It almost effectively killed the incessant negative stories about the Senator and re-enforced the message that the facts don't lie and Obama has the math in his favor. Barack holds the delegate lead and as more super-delegates pledge their votes, the ground Hillary claims to stand on is sinking faster and faster. Now today another ex-DNC Chair is throwing his weight behind Obama, beckoning even more of the party elite to select the nominee and start the mending of fences.
From ABC:
....the Obama campaign rolls out another former DNC chairman's endorsement on Friday: Paul Kirk, a superdelegate who led the party from 1985-1989, is coming out for Obama -- a day after Andrew's switch, an Obama campaign official tells The Note. (And don't count on that being it for the day, as the dribble continues.)
If Clinton, D-N.Y., can make this is a race yet, we're about to find out just how patient Democrats can be with a race that's showing signs of shredding the party. Notwithstanding moves by Andrew, Kirk, and the like, Clinton needs superdelegates to wait for her case to play out -- and then she needs an utter and total rejection of the Democratic frontrunner.
"Despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options," Adam Nagourney and Carl Hulse write in The New York Times. "By and large, the group that matters most at this point -- the uncommitted superdelegates, who are likely to hold the balance of power -- still seem to view their decision the way the Obama campaign would like them to see it."
There are only so many superdelegates and every one of them is crucial for Hillary to have on her side. There are also a few primaries left but the math of proportionality does not favor her campaign at all. The remaining superdelegates aren't simply cattle to be herded either. They are smart enough to see what is going on and backing someone that can lead the party to victory is crucial to them. They also want to let the voters vote and that is why many will wait until after the primaries. The problem for Hillary is that even then, she will still be behind in the count (unless she completely blows Obama out in every contest) and that my friends, will be that.
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