Chris Dodd to Endorse Barack Obama

By: Lowell
Published On: 2/26/2008 6:51:51 AM

This is great news:

After a prolonged silence through most of the primary season, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd is rejoining the presidential race on somebody else's team - Sen. Barack Obama's.

The Connecticut senator, whose own presidential campaign failed to draw enough attention to propel him past the first contest in Iowa, is expected to announce his endorsement of Obama this morning, according to a Democratic official close to Dodd. He'll then campaign with Obama in Ohio.

I grew up in Connecticut, and while never a fan (to put it mildly) of moralistic jerk Joe Lieberman, I always thought very highly of Chris Dodd ever since he was first elected to Congress as part of the "Watergate class of 1974."  This past year, Sen. Dodd's presidential candidacy didn't catch on at the polls, but his strong stands against warrantless wiretapping and the Iraq War, not to mention his support for a corporate carbon tax to fight global warming, won him plaudits from progressives everywhere.  Now, Dodd is joining "Team Obama," even as "Team Clinton" is -- in the words of Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, "Down, and Out of Touch."  Welcome aboard, Senator Dodd!


Comments



Good news. (Bernie Quigley - 2/26/2008 7:27:03 AM)
A worry is that Romney may be reentering. The Dems must get fully organized around a positive new agenda with Barack and Michelle and leave the 20th century behind. The Iraq war must be fully repudiated from beginning to end. If Romney makes a comeback he could lead us to world war.


Newsweek's Jonathan Alter says (Lowell - 2/26/2008 8:12:19 AM)
"Hillary Should Get Out Now":

If Hillary Clinton wanted a graceful exit, she'd drop out now--before the March 4 Texas and Ohio primaries--and endorse Barack Obama...

Withdrawing would be stupid if Hillary had a reasonable chance to win the nomination, but she doesn't. To win, she would have to do more than reverse the tide in Texas and Ohio, where polls show Obama already even or closing fast. She would have to hold off his surge, then establish her own powerful momentum within three or four days. Without a victory of 20 points or more in both states, the delegate math is forbidding. In Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22, the Clinton campaign did not even file full delegate slates. That's how sure they were of putting Obama away on Super Tuesday.

h/t: Real Clear Politics



Why does Jonathan Alter hate Democracy? (aznew - 2/26/2008 11:09:10 AM)
Lets just let the voters have their say. Hillary clinton has clearly signaled that she will not take the fight to the convention if the primary/caucus process produces a clear favorite. It looks like it will. The best thing is to just let that happen.

As someone who thinks Clinton would make a better president, I can deal with a election loss. But the calls by all these arm-chair political strategists for her to leave while she is still willing to fight are counter-productive.

While alter is usually tolerable as far as the MSM goes, this part was rich:

But imagine if, instead of waiting to be marginalized or forced out, Hillary decided to defy the stereotype we have of her family? Imagine if she drew a distinction between "never quit" as it applies to fighting Kenneth Starr and the Republicans on the one hand, and fellow Democrats on the other? Imagine if she had, well, the imagination for a breathtaking act of political theater that would make her seem the epitome of grace and class and party unity, setting herself up perfectly for 2012 if Obama loses?

Yes, this is precisely how it would play out were Hillary Clinton to quit. I mean, there is, what, 20 years of experience where the media has given the Clinton's the benefit of the doubt and treated them kindly and fairly, I'm surprised she didn't think of this, and all the good press she would get and good feeling she would generate if she only quit.

Think what you will about Clinton continuing to run hard for the office. Given the polling trends in Texas, it appears she is unlikely to overcome Obama, and she will have a decision to make on March 5 (I suspect you will see her "suspend" the campaign, doending upon the results). But for Alter to make an argument like this makes me think he has been in a coma since 1991.  



I think she gets to make the call herself (DanG - 2/26/2008 11:38:20 AM)
But on March 5th, she's going to have to make a big decision if she hasn't won BOTH Ohio and Texas.  Again, it's her call, but if Obama wins either Texas or Ohio, then she's going to have to make a big decision about what's good for the party.  If she can't win Texas and Ohio, and in Texas winning for her means WINNING MORE DELEGATES, which could be tough in a state that is not designed in her favor (more delegates in heavily African-American areas, a caucus after the fact, etc), then she should consider dropping out and endorsing Obama.  The quicker we unify, the better.  This has beena divisive primary, and we need to start working together to build the party back up to where it was at the beginning of this whole thing: unified and ready to take back the White House.


Good sign (DanG - 2/26/2008 10:43:54 AM)
This is Dodd politely letting Hillary know that Obama is going to win the nomination, and that she should be backing out.


Charlie Cook: "Game, set and match" (Lowell - 2/26/2008 1:01:12 PM)
From Charlie Cook's latest email:

Out of politeness, the Democratic establishment is holding off on calls for Clinton to drop out of the race until after the Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont nominating contests on March 4. Democrats owe her that much.

However, Clinton victories in those states with sufficient margins to generate the delegates needed to overtake Obama are extremely unlikely. Once she comes up short, the calls for her to get out will begin. Within a few weeks, this is precisely what should happen. Maybe sooner, maybe a bit later -- but it will happen.

If the political situation were not futile enough, the financial reality certainly is. There simply will not be enough money for her to go on.

The irony of the Times' McCain story is that if it hurt anyone, it was Clinton.

If she still had a chance of catching up with Obama, it was dependent upon her getting some traction on one of three criticisms of Obama.

The first is the claim that Obama lifted lines from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's speeches (a valid argument). The second is that he was breaking his pledge to rely on federal matching funds and abide by spending limits in a general election.

Finally, there was Michelle Obama's recent remarks about being proud of her country for the first time in her adult life. The Times story effectively ended any chance that these three attack lines would get any traction. Game, set and match.



Dodd endorses Obama (Lowell - 2/26/2008 1:21:40 PM)
The New York Times reports here:

Sen. Christopher Dodd endorsed one-time presidential rival Barack Obama on Tuesday and said it is time for Democrats to join forces to defeat the Republicans in the fall campaign.

''I don't want a campaign that is divisive here, and there's a danger in that,'' Dodd said, although he denied he was nudging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to end her candidacy.

Dodd said Obama was ''ready to be president and I am ready to support him in this campaign.''

The two men appeared together at a news conference. Dodd is the first of the Democratic campaign dropouts to endorse another candidate.