George,

While I would agree that Richardson's endorsement of Obama will have a minimal impact on the remainder of the primary elections, I still see this potentially as three daggers to Hillary:

(1) Hillary, in response, stated "both of us have many great endorsers, and the voters, not endorsers, will decide this election." Yet she can only win if she gets the super delegates to overturn the voters. And who are the endorsers but the super delegates? This is a gaffe by Hillary as she can't have it both ways- it ironically underlines her inescapable predicament.

(2) This could portend a number of Democrats following Richardson in the coming weeks to the Pennsylvania primary as not many politicians want to go through the entire primary cycle and have a decision made in the ‘smoky’ back rooms. This would be better decided before then, and as Obama’s camp has argued, unless the super delegates want to overrule the raw vote, the elected delegate count or the number of states won, they will inexorably fall in line with Obama. “It’s the math, stupid.”

And (3) Richardson, who is probably only 3rd to Edwards and Gore in political 'weight' in the dem party, and a good friend of the Clintons, and having served in Bill’s administration not once but twice - having sided with Obama, has cleared the way. This makes it that much easier for any other delegate to do the same: if Richardson can decide counter to the political fealty to the Clintons, boy, anyone else can too.

Arthur Lichtenberger (Electronic mail, March 21, 2008)