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    Bob Casey (D-PA) gets off the bench for Obama

    http://www.thedailybackground.com/?p=6889
    45 days ago in The Daily Background · Authority: 102

    Bob Casey (D-PA) gets off the bench for Obama March 28th, 2008 So, the newly-elected Senator Bob Casey (or as I like to call him, Santorum-slayer) has gone out on a limb in his home state of Pennsylvania and endorsed Obama. Whats impressive about Caseys

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    Bob Casey (D-PA) gets off the bench for Obama

    http://www.thedailybackground.com/2008/03/28/bob-casey-d-pa-...
    45 days ago in The Daily Background · Authority: 92

    Bob Casey (D-PA) gets off the bench for Obama March 28th, 2008 So, the newly-elected Senator Bob Casey (or as I like to call him, Santorum-slayer) has gone out on a limb in his home state of Pennsylvania and endorsed Obama. What’s impressive about Casey’s endorsement of Barack Obama is not so much the potential number of votes it moves (I’m not sold on senatorial endorsements being able to deliver a state even in the best of cases, which this certainly isn’t) but that he endorsed him– despite earlier promising that he would stay neutral: “The endorsement comes as something of a surprise,” Dan Pfeiffer, Obama deputy communications director, said in a statement. “Casey … had been adamant about remaining neutral until after the April 22 primary. He said he wanted to help unify the party.” “Obama strategists hope Casey can help their candidate make inroads with the white working-class men who are often referred to as ‘Casey Democrats,’” Pfeiffer said, adding that the group is liberal on economic issues, supportive of gun rights and opposed to abortion. It’s clear that Casey thinks this race is over and he’s just looking to do anything he can to wrap this thing up in the interest of party unity. We saw another similarly unexpected endorsement just after Iowa. That time it was newly elected anti-war Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter (D-NH). First term Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter will endorse Barack Obama’s presidential campaign after saying all year she would stay neutral in the race, the Globe has confirmed. Shea-Porter, supported Wesley Clark in the 2004 primary, and was elected to Congress last year as a strongly anti-war and populist candidate. Of course, it’s easy for a politician to claim that they are “neutral” and then secretly lean towards one candidate or the other (in fact I’d bet that every publicly uncommitted superdelegate in Congress is probably this way, even though they have a favorite in the race). But what’s signifigant is that Shea-Porter, and now Casey, felt so strongly about this that they felt compelled to get up of the bench and do whatever they could to help their candidate. And it’s especially hard when it seems like every other elected official in your home state is going for Clinton (before Casey endorsed, Obama had 4 PA supers, compared with Clinton’s 13). I can’t help but wonder if Obama’s people were working him over and courting him like they do with other uncommitted supers or if it really was, as they say, a complete surprise to them and he got up off the bench on his own. This gives us a good excuse to take another look at Senatorial superdelegate endorsements. I compiled this list with help from the very patient superdelegate expert Oreo from the excellent Dem Con Watch. CLINTON (13) Sen. Mark Pryor (AR) Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR) Sen. Barbara Boxer (CA) Sen. Diane Feinstein (CA) Sen. Bill Nelson (FL)* Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI) Sen. Evan Bayh (IN) Sen. Barbara Mikulski (MD) Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI)* Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ) Herself (NY) Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA) Sen. Patty Murray (WA) OBAMA (16) Sen. Chris Dodd (CT) Sen. Michael Brown (DC)** Sen. Paul Strauss (DC)** Himself (IL) Sen. Dick Durbin (IL) Sen. John Kerry (MA) Sen. Ted Kennedy (MA) Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO) Sen. Ben Nelson (NE) Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) Sen. Byron Dorgan (ND) Sen. Bob Casey (PA) Sen. Tim Johnson (SD) Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT) Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV) Sen. Russ Feingold (WI) * Nelson and Stabenow are from Florida and Michigan and thus are currently stripped of their superdelegate status, so I’m not counting them in the number by Clinton’s name though they are listed here. ** DC Shadow Senators count in the DNC superdelegate tally,despite not having a voting seat in Congress. Posted in Uncategorized