NARAL backs Obama; is Edwards next? Edwards, too

May 14, 2008

It’s not a superdelegate, but it’s quite an important get for the Obama campaign.

Democrat Barack Obama has won the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America. The leading abortion rights advocacy organization has supported rival Hillary Rodham Clinton throughout her political career.

The organization was set to announce the endorsement of its political action committee Wednesday.

NARAL president Nancy Keenan said in a statement: “Today, we are proud to put our organization’s grassroots and political support behind the pro-choice candidate whom we believe will secure the Democratic nomination and advance to the general election. That candidate is Senator Obama.”

Officials said NARAL’s political committee board was about evenly divided among Clinton and Obama supporters and that the decision to endorse was hard fought. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously Friday to support the Illinois senator.

As Ben Smith put it, “That’s a big deal, a sign of the party coalescing around its nominee.”

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, did an item for the Huffington Post explaining why the group threw its support to Obama and why it’s doing so now. (Long story short: Obama has a terrific record on NARAL’s issues, and the group believes that “Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee.”)

But might there be another major endorsement tonight?

I’ve heard rumors — which have not yet been confirmed — that at 7pm, John Edwards will join Obama in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the latest high-profile endorsement. (Update: The event has been moved up to 6:30pm.)

Time’s Mark Halperin is teasing the rumor, which he seems to believe is pretty close to being substantiated.

Here’s what we know:

* Obama is hosting a rally in Grand Rapids tonight.

* The Obama campaign has indicated there will be a “big national endorsement” tonight.

* Obama hosts rallies for his biggest endorsements (Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson), but he also hosts plenty of rallies when there’s no major endorsement.

We’ll know more soon enough.

I suppose, as far as the Obama campaign is concerned, two major endorsements in one day will certainly help take the sting off the results out of West Virginia.

Another Update: It’s official:

Senator John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina who bowed out of the presidential race in January, is expected to endorse Senator Barack Obama at a rally being held here after 6 p.m.

Officials announced the news shortly after Mr. Obama landed here late this afternoon. The campaign has timed the announcement to coincide with the start of the major evening newscasts, which would have otherwise focused on Senator Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in West Virginia, which raised new questions about Mr. Obama’s strength with white working class voters.

Mr. Edwards has been watched closely for who he would endorse, and Mr. Obama’s campaign is hoping it will be taken as the start of a partywide coalescence around Mr. Obama as the Democratic nominee.

It will be fun watching the talkleft crowd go after him. They’re pissed at NARAL.

  • I posted this “downstairs” – boy is this gonna piss off the shilllary concern trolls. Here’s another good article:

    Hillary, McCain and the Stupid Vote
    By DAVE LINDORFF

    I want to be clear here from the start: there is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. Stupidity is a lack of intelligence. But even here, there are subsets. Some ignorance results from a lack of access to knowledge, while some is the result of a laziness or unwillingness to learn. Some stupidity is the result of some genetic or nutritional deficiency

  • Edwards would be a great endorsement. I would love to see Ron Paul (who has said that he prefers Obama over McCain) come out with an endorsement. Not that I am a RP fan, but he has a huge following. Granted, not every Lib (and I see RP as more of a Libertarian than a gooper) will go for Obama, but many who don’t know RP’s policies, but love his openness and views against the war, could go for Obama.

    That would be quite a nice little endorsement.

  • I was an ardent supporter of John Edwards. I have heard some things from Obama that remind me of Edwards. I’ve already decided to vote for Obama. If Edwards endorses him, that just means my instincts were right, again.

  • Assuming Edwards does endorse Obama for President in the coming contest, I would speculate it’s perhaps to get a shot at running the Departement of Health and Human Services, or the Departement of Labor.

    I think he’d be a good choice in either.

  • I’ll believe in an Edwards endorsement when it happens, and not a moment sooner. The track record on predictions for this race has been pretty bad.

  • “* Obama hosts rallies for his biggest endorsements (Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson), but he also ”

    Also what? Also… wants to give me a million dollars?

  • Here’s another a good analysis:

    Your Vote Only Counts if You Are Republican
    by clammyc

    He starts out by proclaiming, “Right up front, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Democratic Presidential primary” but he is wrong.

    The repugs know that they cannot win if there are free, fair, open, and verifiable elections – they stole 2000 & 2004 and will get creamed in 2008 unless they can do some big-time thieving, vote-caging, and disenfranchise non-majority voters.

    shillary’s campaign and our concern trolls here also know that she cannot win if the majority of Americans are free to choose – so they (with help of MSM pundits) proclaim that its really just the uneducated white vote that should count – an inherently racist proposition.

    And why hasn’t shillary publicly denounced rush limpballs’ “Operation Chaos?”

    And why haven’t the concern trolls here denounced it too?

  • “hosts plenty of rallies when there’s no major endorsement.
    * Obama hosts rallies for his biggest endorsements (Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson), but he also “

    CB: Using Yoda’s sentence structuring, you are?

  • How many pledged delegates did Edwards have when he dropped out of the race? I assume his endorsement doesn’t automatically oblige those delegates to vote for Obama, but assuming they all do, how would that affect Obama’s total?

  • Could it be the Governor, whose Michigan solution was dissed by Team Clinton?

  • JRD,

    According to CNN, John Edwards has 19 delegates.

    Assuming that all of them would support Obama given an endorsement, that would bring Obama’s total, per CNN, to 1903.

  • Of course, on this page, CNN also says (in the chart in the middle) that Edwards has 26 delegates and that 2,026 are required to win.

    I think it’s safe to say Edwards has around 20 delegates and CNN is confused.

  • I hope Senator Edwards endorses Senator Obama. But whether or not he does, I would suggest that the perfect place for Senator Edwards in an Obama Administration would be as Attorney General. I feel like he would be very qualified to straighten out the mess that the Bush Administration has made of the department and I would like to see him investigating law breaking by the Bush Adnimistration officials both in the Justice Department and through the Administration.

  • Here’s a pretty good visual representation of why Obama is the stronger candidate. It really blows the racist “uneducated white voters are more important” lie out of the water.

    Obama has won 15 landslides to Clinton’s 3

    Obama has won 12 big double-digit victories to Clinton’s 7

    Total contests: Obama 32, Clinton 16

    Those that spew the “but white people are more important” crap are clearly lying liars.

  • CNN is now confirming the Edwards endorsement:

    (CNN) — CNN has confirmed that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama at a Michigan campaign event about an hour from now.

  • Way to go Edwards !!!!

    This needs to be over. Hillary is losing any leverage she might have had.

  • I agree that the perfect place for Edwards would be the AG slot; he’d be great there. But I’m still thinking VP. In many ways it would tell the Clintons we’re done with them in this round of presidential politics. It would also neatly combine Obama’s “new politics” of inclusion (or dissolution of old divisions) with the traditional Democratic Party’s concern with the rights of working people. Americans hate anything which even hints at elitism (hence George Bush’s shuckin and jivin his family’s New England wealth; hence the efforts to drape Obama with arugula). Both Obama and Edward come from humble origins. I think they’d put together a hell of a campaign.

  • I agree that the perfect place for Edwards would be the AG slot; he’d be great there. But I’m still thinking VP. -Ed Stephan

    I think Department of Health and Human Services. There, he gets the most influence over policy concerning poverty, which is his major concern.

  • Wooohooo! This is good news. But we still need to refrain from rubbing Clinton supporters’ noses in it. Feelings are still raw and we want the most unified party we can have.

  • I will quit rubbing noses when the most racist campaign since george wallace is over – her “white folks count, others don’t” strategy is offensive, racist, and tearing the party apart.

    And why hasn’t anyone denounced rush limpballs’ “Operation Chaos”? Its the only reason she won IN, but she (and her supporters) don’t care.

  • Edwards is announcing in minutes at a Obama Rally in MI!

    Can we freakin’ celebrate NOW????

  • AND the NYT says:

    On the campaign trail in the past year, Mr. Edwards regularly attacked so-called establishment politicians like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and teamed with Mr. Obama against her in debates.

    His campaign sounded similar themes to Mr. Obama’s – both candidates positioned themselves as change agents who would clean house in Washington.

    Music to my ears.

  • Edwards gave a fine speech in every respect. Reminded me of why I’ve always liked him so much…which shouldn’t have been that hard to remember, but this primary season seems like it’s been about 17 years long.

  • John, what took you so long? I mean, I’m glad you finally came around, and the timing works considering yesterday’s blowout in WV, but there was a time when you carried a lot more clout. Whatever.

  • Nah, beep, the timing was perfect from an Obama standpoint (he totally knocked Clinton off the evening news the day after a big primary win) and from an Edwards standpoint (he delayed long enough to be sure he wasn’t going to be losing a spot in a Clinton administration and he got to be the Last Big Endorsement*, which has quite a cachet).

    *If Al Gore sits this out as he says he will–but then again, Edwards said the same thing just a couple of days ago.

  • Good God, y’all, what a day. I’m sitting on my hands here.

  • Clinton is not dropping out. She just sent out an email telling supporters she is in for the next 3 weeks until all the primaries are over.

    Too bad about Edwards. I wonder what Obama promised him? I guess we’ll find out soon enough — VP maybe. This does nothing to invalidate Clinton’s WV victory or her candidacy, but it does show that Edwards is totally willing to jump on a bandwagon and hasn’t the guts to stick to his convictions. If you think this is about agreeing with Obama, ask yourself why he didn’t endorse him much sooner, when it would have mattered more.

  • Edwards was my choice, and stlll is, but his endorsement of Obama really wraps it up. She can make all the noise she wants, but anyone with an ounce of political savvy knows she’s toast. The kabuki dance can go on for a short while longer, but the fat lady is definitely doing her warm-up for the final aria. There may be light at the end of the tunnel.

  • Oh, I think now she’ll stick with it until either (a) all of the primaries and caucuses are done on June 3 or (b) Obama actually gets to 2025 (I know she has suggested the bar may be higher, but the media will actually call it at 2025).

    Easy to understand in a way — if you were running a marathon and got to mile 24, even if you were well off the pace, you’d want to hang on to 26.2 to prove you have it in you.

    As long as she remains in “do no harm” mode, that is probably fine, and potentially more than fine if that “natural” conclusion makes the result easier for everyone to accept.

  • Well, it has happened. *Now* I’ll believe it.

    And yeah, I like Edwards. I was for Kucinich, but I was drifting toward Edwards after Kucinich dropped out.

    And then Edwards also dropped out. A week before I voted on Super Tuesday.

    Gah. I was *really* annoyed at the both of them that day. But anyway, I decided to go with Obama. And while I disagree with some of the details of his politics, I haven’t regretted my choice in the slightest.

  • Agree with Mark Pencil. I didn’t see the interview (who did, after the Edwards endorsement ruled the day?), but it was reported that Clinton defended Obama against McCain’s Hamas nonsense and also said that Charlie Rangel was “probably right” in saying her “hardworking white people” remark was beyond dumb.

    If she conducts herself like this for the next three weeks, more power to her. It will take a while for some people to accept that she’s leaving and as long as she’s not attacking the Democratic nominee, no harm in her staying. Obama will continue running against McCain in the meantime.

  • I got two “darling money send me parents” messages withing minutes of one another. The first was from Obama, announcing Edwards’ endorsement and asking for money to celebrate. The second was from Edwards-for-president (yea, I was an Edwardian in the previous life, too) asking for money for a scholarship fund he’s established for a school in NC (supposedly a pilot program, “helping pay for the 1st yr of college. Last I looked, college took 4 yrs and, due to the screw-ups in scheduling, it was progressively harder to complete a BA in 4 yrs). I think I’m gonna take a page from his book an sit this one out a bit, while I’m thinking what’s in it for me (can you tell I’m still pissed off at having sent him money — because he was going all the way to convention, no matter what – 24hrs before he quit?).

  • Apparently the Edwards endorsement speech was exquisitely timed to coincide precisely with a meeting at Hillary’s home with her principal donors and a super-press on the superdelegates. How delicious!

  • Actually, NARAL hasn’t been “the leading abortion rights advocacy organization” since Kate left.

    And while John Edwards endorsed Obama, Elizabeth Edwards doesn’t seem to be on board. Good for her. She can recognize a bad health care plan when she sees it!

    But hey, Obama’s consultants must have decided that the 41 point loss in WVA would be worse than whatever double digit number Obama is going to lose by in KY. Why else pull Edwards out now?

    And one final thought … those consultants need to tell Obama to stay on script if he’s going to hang around actual WORKING CLASS voters. His “sweetie” non-answer in Michigan just isn’t going to cut it.

    BAC

  • Talk about bad healthcare plan – anyone else remember the early clinton years? At least by keeping close to Obama, Edwards makes his ideas relevant.

    America is rejecting the notion that this nation was founded to be the private playpen for 2 elite families – bush-clinton-bush-clinton

    Shillary’s healthcare plan has its failings too – I will admit that in the 1990’s dems in congress played a huge role in preventing meaningful reform – but clinton played a bigger role.

    Here proclaimations about “how much she learned” are hollow because she has actually voted with the chimp on virtually everything of significance in enabling the criminal cabal behind him

  • NARAL is a powerful national group, there really is no denying that. If it weren’t then the Clintonistas wouldn’t be going so ape.

    Additionally, I know Nancy and she’s a personal friend of the Clintons. I’m pretty sure they’re very surprised by this as it makes her another “Judas.”

    All in all, that’s gotta sting.

  • If Obama is the “putative nominee” why is he concerned about KY at all? Why is he still campaigning against Clinton? Why does an endorsement by Edwards (at this late hour) even matter? This isn’t over yet.

    And then there’s this: “Barack Obama apologized Wednesday to a Michigan TV reporter after he called her “sweetie” and dodged her question about autoworkers.” Making matters worse, he tried to explain this away by saying that he has a habit of calling people sweetie. Just lovely. If someone had a habit of calling people “boy” would that be an excuse for demeaning Obama? This is a perfect example of what feminists mean when they say that some man “doesn’t get it.”

  • Yes, the NARAL endorsement has a whole lotta people up in arms, too many to pretend it doesn’t matter. Seen this?

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