The Toughing of a Candidate and his Endorsers

Maureen Dowd writes in an insightful NY Times column that Hillary may be doing Barack a favor by staying in. In her grittiness she's teaching him how to win, how to come down from the clouds and deal with reality. She may be right. Although I have appreciated his vision and ability to transcend barriers, there came a point in February where people were swooning at his every word -- sort of like George Whitefield audiences during the First Great Awakening. He has had to come down from the tower and engage in a bit more street fighting. He may not be as "clean" as he once was, but he's more battle tested for November. So, perhaps Dowd is right. This is a learning exercise and that in the end, after Hillary has completed the lessons she will gracefully bow out.
In the mean time, Obama has been gaining important endorsements, some from super delegates and others from important party leaders. A few days back Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar gave her thumbs up and today it's Lee Hamilton of Indiana. This is an important endorsement even though Hamilton isn't a super-delegate. He is a well known foreign policy expert, having been the chair of the House's Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees and vice chair of the 9-11 Commission and Iraq Study Group. He is also gives Obama an important counterweight in Indiana to the party leadership backing Hillary.
Other endorsements are coming in as well, or soon will be coming in. Wyoming Governor David Freudenthal, who stayed neutral earlier, has given his endorsement as well.
Only time will tell what is going to happen. My sense is that if Obama does better than expected in Pennsylvania and then wins North Carolina, he could regain his momentum and win a couple of the states he's not expected to win -- like Indiana and Kentucky. As we get closer to the end, voters will look at the race and decide to jump on the eventual bandwagon. I could be wrong, but that's my expectation.

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