Now that she is losing in the primaries and caucuses, Hillary Clinton is hoping to still win the Democratic nomination with the support of the super delegates. The flaw in this plan is that many of the super delegates will realize that it would be harmful to the party to overrule the decisions of the voters in such a manner. Many super delegates are holding off on making a decision, but some committed early. It is a sign of Obama’s momentum that some who have committed early are now changing their support from Clinton to Obama. John Lewis is the latest:
Representative John Lewis, an elder statesman from the civil rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.
“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”
Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate he could “never, ever do anything to reverse the action” of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.
“I’ve been very impressed with the campaign of Senator Obama,” Mr. Lewis said. “He’s getting better and better every single day.”
His comments came as fresh signs emerged that Mrs. Clinton’s support was beginning to erode from some other African-American lawmakers who also serve as superdelegates. Representative David Scott of Georgia, who was among the first to defect, said he, too, would not go against the will of voters in his district.
Andrew Sullivan quotes from Lewis’s original endorsement of Clinton and says:
If Lewis’s original endorsement of the Clintons was a huge blow to Obama, then his reversal is an even bigger blow to the Clintons. The Obama campaign has now not only built a rival machine to the Clintons’, it is poaching loyalists. A figure like Lewis also brings, for good reason, a vast moral credibility with him. He gives permission – even encouragement – for other Clinton super-delegates to move to prevent a bruising and bitter fight through the spring. It’s a tipping point. I predict others will follow.
I’m starting to think Obama would be much easier to run against for Republicans than Hillary. There’s so much dirt on Obama, like this latest flag flap out of Houston where the Campaign HQ had Communist Che Guevera in the background, and the endorsement yesterday of Obama by Communist Daniel Ortega, plus the incident where Obama didn’t put his hand over his heart during the pledge while Hillary and Richardson did in the background.
It’s like a Right-wing smorgasboard to choose from for the Fall election.
I too may be switching from hoping for a Hillary win, to hoping for Obama to prevail in the Dem primary. I say this as a Republican. Even though I can’t stand McCain, Obama would prove best for downticket GOP Congressional candidates.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a more openly Pro-Communist candidate running for President since Henry Wallace in the 1940s.
Eric,
You really do live in a fantasy world, believing every right wing email smear. Fortunately most people are too smart for that.
A local Obama volunteer hung a Che flag in a planned campaign office before anyone from the actual campaign came.
Daniel Ortega simply called the Obama campaign revolutionary. That is hardly an endorsement or evidence of any similarity in views.
The picture being spread by right wing kooks in which Obama doesn’t have his hand over his heart was not taken when the pledge was been said.
If you consider this a smorgasboard, you are going to starve.
If you think Obama would prove best for downticket GOP candidates, think again. When he continues to pull in independent and Republican votes, some of them are also going to vote for Democratic candidates down ticket.
Pro-Communist? Obama is as far from Communist as anyone we’ve seen. Besides being the strongest civil libertarian to run that I can remember, Obama’s economic advisers come from The University of Chicago. That is hardly a hot bed of Communist economic thought.
The reality is that Obama is the most libertarian candidate we’ve had from a major party. You can’t face that reality as it would totally destroy your illusion that there is anything libertarian about the Republican Party.
I agree Ron. Eric is super delusional!
The difference is Hillary is use to Republican attacks. Obama is not and they will dig every ounce of dirt from the closets, link his to Islamic terrorist, label him unpatriotic and it will work. Americans will fall for it and the Democrats will lose.
Jeremy,
The difference is that Obama has been running a competent campaign but Clinton has not.
Obama has been doing an excellent job of diffusing all these bogus attacks. coming from both the right and from the equally dishonest Clinton campaign.
The other difference is that while Hillary has actual dirt in her closet, the attempts to find dirt on Obama have failed, causing Clinton and the conservatives to invent things on him instead.
Some wisdom from Eric Dondero… NOT!
Interesting that the man who back-stabbed Ron Paul, the only fiscal conservative running, would call Obama a “communist” (when he is, at worst, a social democrat) only to endorse a Trotskyist neoconservative. Good luck to John McTrotsky… he is toast!