Sunday, April 6, 2008
Richardson's Endorsement of Obama
After his indirect endorsement of Obama in the beginning of March, Governor Richardson (also a superdelegate) finally officially endorsed the Democratic candidate on March 21st. Governor Richardson revealed that Barack Obama's speech on race cinched the deal on his decision, for as a Hispanic-American, Richardson believes Obama "is a man who understands us." After criticism by some Democrats over his decision to endorse Obama over Clinton, Richardson responded saying, "I am very loyal to the Clintons. I served under President Clinton. But I served well. And I served the country well. And he gave me that opportunity...But you know...it shouldn't just be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton." After accusations by Clinton aides of Richardson's "betrayal" to the Clintons, Richardson responded by saying he was "very close to endorsing" Hillary but changed his mind when her campaign became negative.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think that now that Rihardson has endorsed Obama he has a very good chance of becoming the Democratic Vice Presidential Nomination. Also waiting so long to endorse seems to emphasize that he wants the role beause while the race seemed tied, he refrained from giving his support to either supposably close friends, the Clintons or Obama.What's more his comment that the Presidency should be more than Bushs and Clintons that it may have been mokre than Obama's uderstanding of race relations that compelled him to publicize his support. Additionally, it will be interesting to see how the relations between the Clintons and Richardson develops as the Democratic National Convention approaches.
Richardson's endorsement came earlier than expected, though his move was a careful political calculation. His announcement came in the week following the reverend wright fiasco and was a clear attempt to blunt the controversy, though his attempt seems to have generated mixed results. The endorsement seemed to shift the focus of media attention for only a short time, eventually being overshadowed by the controversy and consequently diminished in importance. While Obama seems to have successfully recovered from the debacle, it seems more likely that Hillary Clinton's own speech blunders had more to do with the recovery than Richardson's endorsement.
Post a Comment