This is a big pick up for Barack Obama: A man Bill Clinton appointed to head the Democratic National Committee, a superdelegate who had previously supported Hillary Clinton's presidential big, and a Hoosier to boot. The Associated Press has the story.
A leader of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to "heal the rift in our party" and unite behind the Illinois senator.Joe Andrew, who was Democratic National Committee chairman from 1999-2001, planned a news conference Thursday in his hometown of Indianapolis to urge other Hoosiers to support Obama in Tuesday's primary, perhaps the most important contest left in the White House race. He also has written a lengthy letter explaining his decision that he plans to send to other superdelegates.
"I am convinced that the primary process has devolved to the point that it's now bad for the Democratic Party," Andrew said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Bill Clinton appointed Andrew chairman of the DNC near the end of his presidency, and Andrew endorsed the former first lady last year on the day she declared her candidacy for the White House.
Andrew said in his letter that he is switching his support because "a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to continue this process, and a vote to continue this process is a vote that assists (Republican) John McCain."
According to the AP, the Obama campaign did not reach out to Andrew, who instead shifted his allegiance after having been impressed by Obama's handling of the Jeremiah Wright situation in recent days and Obama's "principled stand" (the AP's words, not mine) in opposition to a temporary curtailment of the federal gasoline tax.
But as much as the confidence Andrew shows in Obama's campaign is important -- and it is; the talking points he passes on to the AP are directly on mark for Obama's message -- the fact that Andrew is yet another key Democratic Party official (and a longtime ally of the Clintons at that) is calling for a beginning of the end to the process in the hopes of turning the focus of the party to fighting John McCain rather than within itself suggests that there may actually be something to the predictive but thus far illusory reports that closure may be nearing.
No doubt the results from Indiana and North Carolina next week, and to a lesser extent a state like Oregon and perhaps even Puerto Rico, will play a significant role in convincing the party to move in one direction or the other (though the race for pledged delegates is all but over at this juncture).
Nevertheless, news of the Andrew endorsement comes a day after Obama picked up three new superdelegates to Clinton's two, and ups his lead in this metric since his Pennsylvania loss to 11 to 6. Perhaps even more importantly, it represents the first time that Clinton's lead among this segment of delegates has been less than 20 since the most nascent stages of the campaign (it now stands at 19). What's more, it represents a major shift, not only in the past few days, but also the past several weeks and even few months (in the period roughly between Super Tuesday and the Pennsylvania primary, 84 percent of superdelegates announcing their endorsements backed Obama rather than Clinton).
So I'm still waiting to see if the raft of dozens of superdelegates endorsing Obama, which has been foretold at least a couple of times (back before mini-Super Tuesday in early March, as well as in the lead up to the Pennsylvania primary) but never actually came to fruition in the way it was expected, will actually and finally occur. But frankly, I'm not holding my breath, even if I do think it may happen after voting is done towards the beginning of next month.
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