Momentum breeds momentum and winning breeds more winning. News out of Texas is good as the San Antonio Express joins the Dallas Morning News in endorsing Obama. But the bigger news is the endorsement of State Rep. Pete Gallego, the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. (h/t to kubla000).
The non-partisan Mexican American Legislative Caucus comprises most Hispanic members of the Texas House of Representatives. Gallego said he was in the process of contacting other Democrats in MALC to see who they are lining up for in the presidential election.
“I have been somewhat surprised at the number of folks that have contacted us. We have not had to call them. They have jumped up and asked to be on the Obama team,” Gallego said.
Gallego said he had seen Obama speak many times and had never left disappointed.
“I just think he has this ability, an almost unnatural ability. His cadence, is very, very, good. He can really excite the mind. I have never left one of his speeches thinking he was flat,” Gallego said.
There are other signs. The Establishments of both New Jersey and Rhode Island lined up early for Clinton, but there is some erosion. For example, in New Jersey:
Democratic superdelegate Christine “Roz” Samuels of Montclair said she changed her preference for Hillary Clinton after the former president’s comments about Obama’s stance on the Iraq war, and after Hillary Clinton’s comments about Martin Luther King.
“I’m disappointed in a few things that were said a few weeks ago by President Clinton,” she said. “I’m going to have to revisit what I’m going to do between now and when we vote.”
And Rhode Island:
State Attorney General Patrick Lynch has endorsed presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, a decision that puts Lynch at odds with most of Rhode Island’s political elites, including his own brother, who have united behind Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“I feel that I would be missing the moment — missing a moment that might never be reclaimed — if I do not make my vote count the most that it can count and declare my support for Senator Barack Obama,” Lynch said in a statement released yesterday.
The undecided superdelegates are now breaking for Obama, including some pretty influential voices:
This morning, a Nebraska super delegate to the national party convention settled who he’d support in Denver. Frank La Mere, who has long advocated for native American causes in Siouxland, announced he’s backing Barack Obama.
“We, as native Americans, have always stood four square with the Democratic Party and they have always stood four square with us… Hope and change require that we be audacious and Barack Obama knows this better than anyone. We must acknowledge this bold man among us and the good heart he has for all of the people,” said LaMere, who’s chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s Native American Caucus.
Here’s another from Connecticut:
Tony Avallone, a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, is supporting Barack Obama for president. He said today he made that decision a week before the primary.
Avallone’s commitment means that Obama has 6 superdelegates from Connecticut, compared with one for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Five remain unpledged.
Then there is Iowa:
Gov. Chet Culver, who endorsed Obama on Thursday, said he would urge Iowa’s superdelegates to back Obama, in part because the Illinois senator convincingly won Iowa’s caucuses. Obama captured the equivalent of 38 percent of the state’s delegates on caucus night, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards receiving 30 percent and Clinton 29 percent.
“I do think it matters too that Iowans have spoken loudly and clearly,” Culver said in a Des Moines Register interview Friday. “And because of that, in part, I felt compelled to also stand with him.”
“I’d love it if every superdelegate supported Barack Obama,” Culver also said, adding that he had begun making calls to the others.
And, even though Clinton won in New Hampshire both reps are sticking with Obama, while things are getting interesting in Colorado. The sole piece of good news I can find for Clinton is a couple of days old and comes out of Michigan where Rep. John Dingell and Dale Kildee endorsed her.
I just read in the WPost that there were no Superdelegates before 1982. You may have to login to read it.
Chris Bowers:
(http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3704)
here’s sirota’s post about the superdelegate issue in colorado, from square state: A Short-Term Solution….
to date gov ritter, sen salazar, and rep mark udall have avoided making any indorsements, and really don’t want to. since the convention is here, there is, and will continue be, a lot of pressure on them to endorse obama because of his 2:1 edge over clinton.
we shall see. it’s likely to be very interesting in denver come august.
lTMF’sA
In NH, next door my neck-of-woods, there’s buyers’ remorse. The Manchester Union Leader ran a piece that said outright, Clinton lied…having pledged to abide the DNC rules..but now, she wants MI and FL to be seated.
Clintons have devoted a lot of time in ME. Chelsea also doing the rounds. Don’t see much news on Obama.
The weather may affect turnout. We’re under heavy, blowing snow up here in the North East…with white-out conditions from VT, NH to ME.
I don’t think that the few cases cited above constitute a trend (let alone an irresistable one) for superdelegates to choose Obama.
The superdelegates I know personally (excluding officeholders) are not the sort of people I’d trust to decide where to have my dog’s nails clipped, let alone choosing a President. These are people who will want to be bought off. Hillary has an advantage there — not a whole lot of qualms.
To win over the superdelegates, Obama will either have to show clear momentum and an advantage with wins in May — North Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky — or else do something truly dramatic. My choice for the latter is in my sig.
The media tell us Clinton’s super delegate support is iron clad. The same people who told us her primary voter support was iron clad.
Yeah, the media is just blowing smoke…
If I were a superdelegate, I would be sitting on the side and crossing my fingers that a clear nominee emerges from the primaries.
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Latest count of delegates at RealClearPolitics
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Hillary is replacing her campaign manager with her former chief of staff.
I don’t know about her campaign manager but she should have replaced Mark Penn after Iowa.
UPDATE: Maine w/59% counted – 57% Obama, 42% Clinton.
The superdelegates are not “fixed,” as someone pointed out. Although I’m not saying anything that people here don’t already know, my point is simply that it’s way too early to expect them to act contrary to primary/caucus results.
I can understand people’s fear, but it’s still too early to regard Clinton’s early lead with them to hold in the face of election results that favor Obama.