Dodd Endorses Obama

Senator Chris Dodd (R-CT) pulled out of the race for the White House right after a dreadful showing in the Iowa caucuses. His main appeal to the voters, such as it was, came in the field of foreign policy; he’s chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and has been a member of that committee for about 25 years. Yesterday, he endorsed Barack Obama.

In an e-mail to his supporters, Senator Dodd wrote, “While both of our party’s remaining candidates are extremely talented and would make excellent commanders-in-chief, I am throwing my support to the candidate who I believe will open the most eyes to our shared Democratic vision. I'm deeply proud to be the first 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to endorse Barack Obama. He is ready to be president. And I am ready to support him - to work with him and for him and help elect him our 44th president.”

Why should anyone care what Chris Dodd thinks? Apart from being a superdelegate himself, he gives some help in the Latino community. He spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, and he is fluent in Spanish. He also is a northeast liberal, and that might peel a few more votes away from Mrs. Clinton's shrinking base.

At the same time, Mr. Dodd (and for that matter, Messrs. Biden, Kucinich, Gravel, and Richardson) hasn’t got a bloc of delegates to deliver. Mr. Edwards has all of 26, and his ability to influence the race declines with each passing day. The truth is that a politician’s endorsement of another politician doesn’t mean much at this stage of the game. Early endorsements provide credibility, but not now.

What this may portend is a wave of thus-far-unpledged superdelegates shifting to the Obama camp. Everyone likes to be with a winner, especially in politics. Some, though, are going to wait another 8 days to see how Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island turn out, and this endorsement will help in the latter two.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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