| Damn. Last night was big. To some extent, it was the first real win of the primary season on the Democratic side. The rest were basically ties or narrow wins. Last night, South Carolina went overwhelming for the Man from Audacity.
The news gets worse for the Clintons. Even though Hillary is still in the pole position, Ted Kennedy is endorsing Barack Obama. In Democratic politics, there are fewer bigger names.
Right-wingers will no doubt chortle that Ted Kennedy's endorsement could mean anything. Even as modern Republicans occasionally try to claim Jack Kennedy as one of theirs (a bizarre postmortem baptism if ever there was one), they treat his surviving brother as a devil. Strange, one would think, that the third brother of a highly political family would have such different core values than those of his brethren.
Now, I'm not going to claim that Ted Kennedy is an angel. Few of us are. But he is one of the strongest voices of American liberalism and he has been one of its most effective during his time in the U.S. Senate.
Just as noteworthy is why he is endorsing. Long story short: he's pissed at the Clintons' attempts at racial divisiveness. He's not just lending his name, either. He's hitting the road, talking to union members and Hispanic voters in a number of February 5th states. In Massachusetts, which votes on 2/5, this could be game-changing, especially when wedded to the endorsements of Deval Patrick and John Kerry. In California, this will play well (and it comes on top of the endorsement of the highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. House -- Xavier Bacerra).
Long story short, this race is on completely. As I wrote at AOL, I thought Hillary Clinton made a big mistake refusing to offer a real concession last night. The momentum in this race has often gone to the high-road sympathetic figure.
Her "calvinball" approach to whether Florida and Michigan's delegates ought to count ain't helping much either. Rules are only rules and heaven knows they can change, but changing the rules based on the outcome is an awful way to operate.
Update -- And Kathleen Sebelius? Damn. That's quite a pick-up. Kansas also votes on Super Fat Tuesday, so this won't hurt. Plus, Sebelius and Napolitano (and, I suppose, Claire McCaskill) are among the Democratic Party's leading new female faces. For them to endorse Obama is a big statement (think if Deval Patrick had endorsed Hillary Clinton). |
