Ted Kennedy Endorses Barak Obama

Political endorsements are interesting things. For the most part, they are simply public ways of showing who the endorser would like to win. They show that there are political alliances formed, even during the primary elections. Rarely do they sway voters. The number of endorsements, while they can be impressive, does not necessarily relate to what the voters think of a candidate.

Hillary Clinton has by far more endorsements than Barak Obama. According to www.mahalo.com, Mrs. Clinton has received endorsements from such politicians as Robert Kennedy Jr., Walter Mondale, former Vice-President, Richard Gephardt, Geraldine Ferraro, former Vice-Presidential candidate, and George McGovern, a former Presidential candidate. Current senators such as Evan Bayh from Indiana, Debbie Stabenow from Michigan, Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island, Barbara Mikulski from Maryland, all have endorsed her. She has also received endorsements from the governors of Maine, Oregon, Ohio, Arkansas, Maryland, and the former governors of Missouri, Washington, and Maine, in addition to other endorsements from the private sector and the entertainment industry. Clinton has also received the endorsements of several major newspapers. It remains to be seen whether all of these endorsements play in her favor - whether they in fact sway voters to cast their ballots for her.

Senator Obama, on the other hand, has received fewer, but more important, endorsements. Major endorsements have come from Oprah Winfrey, Ted and Caroline Kennedy, Senators John Kerry, Patrick Leahy and Ben Nelson, Governors Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Janet Napolitano of Arizona. He has also received the endorsement of former presidential candidate Bill Bradley.

I have previously argued that most political endorsements do little to sway voters to vote for a particular candidate. While a high profile endorsement, John Kerry is likely to do very little to influence voters to come over to vote for Obama.