aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Lewis leaves Clinton
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.”
He’ll decide on whether to endorse in the next couple days. Georgia Representative David Scott also defected.
Things are not looking good for Hillary.
LATER: I don’t disagree with Andrew:
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. And what both Clinton and Obama have to avoid is a polarizing racial divide.
I’m quite confident Clinton will do that.
