At various points during the campaign, it's appeared that both of the leading Democratic candidates have pursued a solid strategy, keeping superdelegate endorsements in their pockets until they're most useful. Sometimes, the campaigns make these endorsements public when they need a boost from a local endorser just before a primary; sometimes they use them to shift the media narrative in their favor. (One rumor that's been filtering about for almost two months now is that Barack Obama's campaign has about 50 superdelegates who've made their decision and are just waiting for the right time to announce.)
The Obama camp's Wednesday rollout of three new endorsements looks like it may be one of those situations. Clearly, it's been a bad news week for Obama so far, and the campaign could really use a few positive stories; it has one in the endorsements, which come from Indiana Rep. Baron Hill, Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley and California Rep. Lois Capps.
I don't know about Hill, but I do know that Braley has been signaling for a long time now that he was leaning in Obama's direction. And as for Capps, well, it's true that she has been close to the Clintons, but it's also true that her son-in-law is Bill Burton, Obama's press secretary. He's married to Capps' daughter, who's now known as Laura Burton Capps. Laura Burton Capps spent some time in the 1990's working for the Clinton White House, but after that she worked for Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, both of whom have endorsed Obama. (She's currently at the Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.)
Shares