Robert Reich to endorse Obama...

[tyne]

"If the Democratic presidential race were a poker game, by now you'd have to suspect that Barack Obama's campaign is dealing from the bottom of the deck: Rarely a day goes by when it doesn't slap another ace down on the table. The aces in this (possibly strained) metaphor are endorsements, and it often seems as if the Obama operation has an inexhaustible supply at its disposal. In the past week alone, it has announced the support of congressmen from North Carolina and Indiana; the Utah state party chair; the Oklahoma state party's chief fundraiser; 25 South Dakota state legislators; the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers; and, not least, The Boss. Some of these endorsers are super-delegates, and thus of no small consequence to the outcome of the race. Others are simply window-dressing, deployed to create a sense of ineluctable momentum in Obama's direction. But none have the particular resonance of the endorsement that's coming — unbeknownst to the campaign — a little later today.
The endorsement in question is that of Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's first Secretary of Labor and a friend of both the former president and his wife for four decades. Around 1:00pm EST, Reich informs me, he intends formally to declare his support for Obama on his blog."

>

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/04/heilemann_robert_reich_to_endo.html

[Bicoastal]

1. Extremely short men for Obama!

This 5 ft 6 chap applauds you, Mr. Reich....ya shrimp.

[Tinksrival]

13. HA!

That was funny! :)

[Tesha]

19. You beat me to it! I was going to say "But won't that still leave Obama a little short?" (NT)

[JPZenger]

24. Here's Comprehensive List of Obama Endorsements

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/theodorefetter/gGBnld/commentary

The above is a very thorough list of Obama endorsements, including members of congress, retired generals and admirals, newspapers, etc.

Obama has now been endorsed by almost all of the large newspapers in PA, plus some small ones. Mellon-Scaife has not made an endorsement in his paper. Hillary has only been endorsed by one paper - a student run paper at a university.

[TragedyandHope]

25. Here you go!

[ginnyinWI]

2. cool--and no surprise

He's been talking up Obama on the talk shows for weeks. :)

[Stephanie]

3. Judas!

Hah! It's over, Hill. Get off the stage.

[Quixote1818]

9. You beat me to it. Bill is going to go ballistic again!

:rofl:

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. I thought he already did?

[scheming daemons]

5. Robert Reich is dead to the Clintonistas now....

....

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. I think a lot of people who have known the Clintons intimately are

sending a signal to their good friends that it's over. While she continues to flail about to indulge her own ego, everyone else is seeing the writing on the wall. Thank you Robert Reich.

[CherokeeDem]

7. Does anyone else find...

the desertion of so many former Clinton staffers and administration officals very interesting? I wonder if their loyality was to Bill and not to Hillary and now, even Bill can't keep them supporting Hillary.

[Divernan]

15. Perhaps their loyalty was based more on fear than friendship?

You just didn't want to get either clinton pissed off at you when there was the possibility that HRC would end up back in the White House.

[CherokeeDem]

18. That is an interesting thought...

and one I wouldn't be surprised was true. The Clinton's appear to be a bit vindictive don't they???

[DrDan]

17. yes - I am baffled by this

I wonder if their opinion of Bill changed after being appointed to various posts within his administration.

[DAGDA56]

8. One more name crossed off the Carville Family Christmas List...

nt

[MidwestTransplant]

10. They will save lots of money on postage this Christmas

[BlooInBloo]

11. And on the Carville Family BITE List!

:rofl:

[MH1]

12. Great endorsement!

I :loveya: Robert Reich. (What was MA thinking?!? when they didn't elect him governor....didn't they end up with some cardboard cutout named Mitt or something?)

[Avalux]

14. YAY!!! Thank you Robert Reich.

I've always been a fan of his; this endorsement is wonderful!

[Hamlette]

16. great Reich quote from the article

So what's changed? I asked Reich.

"I saw the ads" — the negative man-on-street commercials that the Clinton campaign put up in Pennsylvania in the wake of Obama's bitter/cling comments a week ago — "and I was appalled, frankly. I thought it represented the nadir of mean-spirited, negative politics. And also of the politics of distraction, of gotcha politics. It's the worst of all worlds. We have three terrible traditions that we've developed in American campaigns. One is outright meanness and negativity. The second is taking out of context something your opponent said, maybe inartfully, and blowing it up into something your opponent doesn't possibly believe and doesn't possibly represent. And third is a kind of tradition of distraction, of getting off the big subject with sideshows that have nothing to do with what matters. And these three aspects of the old politics I've seen growing in Hillary's campaign. And I've come to the point, after seeing those ads, where I can't in good conscience not say out loud what I believe about who should be president. Those ads are nothing but Republicanism. They're lending legitimacy to a Republican message that's wrong to begin with, and they harken back to the past 20 years of demagoguery on guns and religion. It's old politics at its worst — and old Republican politics, not even old Democratic politics. It's just so deeply cynical."

[nichomachus]

21. And, folks, this is what the super delegates pay attention to

The supers don't give a rat's ass about an endorsement from some stupid college newspaper (the one that got Hillary people wetting their pants yesterday). They don't really care about a one-point swing in the polls.

They don't even care about the ABC sideshow. In fact, they are politicians and they can imagine themselves up there being blindsided by tabloid trash questions. (They probably side with Obama just because of that.)

They are looking and listening, and they are seeing the same thing Reich is.

The fact that so many people who were Clinton cabinet members and insiders are endorsing Obama is sending a very loud and clear message. Something is drastically wrong with the Clinton campaign.

[Skidmore]

23. Well done, Mr. Reich.

He gets it. He understands what must change before progress toward any agenda can be made in this nation.

Well done, sir.

[SoFlaJet]

20. Friggin Judas-gate part 2

.

[kentuck]

22. Reich was held in check by the Clinton Administration...

Or he would have been a much more progressive Labor Secretary.