We have heard it all. OBAMA, HILLARY, OBAMA HILLARY!!!!! Well just in January we were looking at eight presidential candidates for the Democrats. Yes, remember those debates back in the summer where minor candidates like Mike Gravel, a former Senator from Alaska, and Chris Dodd, the actual Democratic Senator from Connecticut, (the one with the white hair who wasn't Anderson Cooper) were fighting for airtime? Ahhhh the good ol' days.....
Well today for all intensive purposes it's just Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton left in the Democratic race (Technically speaking, Mike Gravel is still in the race for the Democratic nomination, and has not dropped out yet, but he has not won a single delegate). However, out of the former Democratic presidential candidates, none of them have announced their support for Obama or Hillary.
Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and John Edwards may have dropped out, but they also have not endorsed any candidate. Their support is widely wanted by both campaigns, and in the past few weeks, Bill Clinton watched the Superbowl with Bill Richarson, and Hillary and Obama met with John Edwards and his family at his home in North Carolina. As the Ohio primary comes closer, there might be some pressure raised on Dennis Kucinich, who is still a Congressman from Ohio, to endorse a candidate. The two campaigns probably feel that with the support of their former contenders, they can gain some media attention, or even some delegates in the case of John Edwards as he did win 26 delegates in his run for the presidency. In a close race for the Democratic nomination, those 26 delegates might come in big at the convention.
Endorsements are big in general, or can amount to nothing at all. During the nomination process in 1844 for the Democrats, Martin Van Buren was running for the nomination, and James K. Polk ended up becoming a dark horse candidate after it was clear that the convention would be deadlocked. Sometime in the summer of 1844, former president Andrew Jackson called James Polk to his house and announced to him that Polk was his favorite for the nomination at the convention, essentially picking up the endorsement of Jackson. Long story short, Polk ended up winning the Democratic nomination for president, and then in November he won the presidency.
With endorsements flying around these days, some are huge and will add media attention like with Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama. Some are minor and don't mean anything. In the end, it is the endorsement of the American voter that really matters, but until they decide, former presidential contenders are being sought after now for the support of a candidate.
Information on the former presidential candidates received from:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/
Articles used in this entry from:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/obama-and-edwards-meet/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23303147
1 comment:
Speaking of endorsements, if anyone has bothered to follow the Republican side of the nomination story, you would notice that endorsements aren't nearly important to McCain as they may be to the Democratic frontrunners. The lead McCain holds over Huckabee can be defined as a blowout in every aspect of the word. McCain has managed to secure endorsements from his former oponent Mitt Romney and former president George "41" Bush. Some say that securing "41"'s endorsement will help unify the party behind McCain. Some people also say that Bush's endorsement is meant to get Huckabee to quit trying. Both idea's are plausible.
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