The Hartford Courant reports that my erstwhile endorsee, Chris Dodd, will be announcing his support of Barack Obama for president today.
It seems unlikely to me that this will make a lot of difference. Dodd didn’t exactly light up the campaign trail in his brief time on it, and CT has already voted for Obama. Dodd himself has downplayed the importance of endorsements — his own in particular:
“People are smart enough. They can make their own choice,” he said. “And I’ve never been quite convinced that endorsements mean much anyway, and the assumption that I stand for somebody causes a great number of people to otherwise change their mind I think is terribly presumptuous.
“I don’t have this exalted view that having been a candidate will somehow bring some unique and special qualities to this.”
So this isn’t a defining moment or anything, but it’s another small uptick in the ongoing O-mentum.
So chalk one for Obama.
Couldn’t we just give Dodd two votes?
Dodd developed a small but very enthusiastic following in the second half of last year with his campaign against telco amnesty and other constitutional abuses. I suspect most of those people (including myself) are already supporting Obama.
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p>I spent most of last year undecided. Dodd was the first candidate I donated to, because of his call to filibuster the PAA extension. Now he’s endorsed Obama.
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p>I became undecided at the end of 2006, when Russ Feingold decided not to run. In 2006 I was quite decided, and beginning to organize for Feingold. He recently revealed that he voted for Obama in the Wisconsin primary. Though he didn’t make a formal endorsement, he said he would probably vote for Obama at the convention too.
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p>Overall, this has the feel of more ducks lining up where the trend was already leading.
“Overall, this has the feel of more ducks lining up where the trend was already leading.”-COS
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p>That about sums it up. I think one of the only significant endorsements left would be Al Gore, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for him to do so.
I think Edwards’ endorsement might be as big a deal as Gore’s, but I’m not holding my breath on that one either.
because he may be a candidate for VP with whomever becomes the nominee.
This is no surprise. Dodd is just falling in line.
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p>Democrats fortunately have two outstanding candidates. Neither a hard choice nor profile in courage.
My bet is these guys play it safe and wait until after the March 4th primaries to endorse. Since its likely Hillary will be dropping out anyway since Texas looks like Obama country it may very well be just a rubber stamp endorsement of the nominee. That said it does like like Clinton will win Ohio, possibly by as much as 10 pts. If she still is in the race than a post-March 4th endorsement from either of these three could be a significant factor in forcing her out.
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p>And my bet is this lady aint gonna quit until the nomination is pried from her cold dead hands.
For such a seemingly charming candidate, Obama’s supporters are rather devoid of charm.
Hillary still has a chance, though it’s dwindling. It makes sense for her to keep running. Her millions of supporters probably hope she keeps running and would be very frustrated if she dropped out while she still has a reasonable chance.
I get the feeling that he’s going for the earliest possible endorsement of someone who’s going to win…and we still don’t know who’s going to win.
It’s a shame that this came out today. Given how popular Dodd became among many in the netroots, I’m a little annoyed that it came just too late. It could have helped push the Blue Majority folks to endorse Obama now rather than waiting, which might have been interesting.