Via the LAT: Ex-Labor Secretary Reich backs Obama
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on Friday became the fifth former Clinton Cabinet member to endorse Barack Obama, saying that loyalty to his old friends the Clintons had been overwhelmed by unhappiness with the tone of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“I did not plan to endorse. I wanted to stay out of the whole endorsement racket. But my conscience wouldn’t let me stay silent after this latest round of mudslinging,” Reich, a UC Berkeley professor of public policy, said in a telephone interview from his campus office.
Reich made the announcement on his blog.1
The Clinton cabinet Obama supporter are as follows: Reich (Labor), Richardson (Energy), Daley (Commerce), Mineta (Commerce)2 and Pena (Transportation and Energy).
Really, given the closeness of the race, it should be no surprise that some who served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet would not endorse Hillary Clinton. For one thing, past services only means so much, and more to the point, Hillary isn’t Bill–which is relevant as any loyalty in question is owed to Bill, not Hillary, and further, Hillary does not hold policy views that are identical to those held by her husband.
However, I do find it interesting that Reich made this decision, at least in part, on the way that the Clinton campaign has been conducting itself of late, that is going into full attack mode an arguing that Obama can’t take the heat of public attacks.3 The interesting thing about this current strategy is that it appears to be alienating the electorate to which Clinton needs most to appeal: superdelegates and Democratic Party elites.
To wit, the NYT from 4/18/08: Superdelegates Unswayed by Clinton’s Attacks:
despite giving it her best shot in what might have been their final debate, interviews on Thursday with a cross-section of these superdelegates — members of Congress, elected officials and party leaders — showed that none had been persuaded much by her attacks on Mr. Obama’s strength as a potential Democratic nominee, his recent gaffes and his relationships with his former pastor and with a onetime member of the Weather Underground.
In fact, the Obama campaign announced endorsements from two more superdelegates on Thursday, after rolling out three on Wednesday and two others since late last week in what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated show of strength before Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary. Obama advisers said that one of the pickups on Thursday, Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. of the District of Columbia, had initially favored Mrs. Clinton, but Clinton advisers denied that, and a Thomas aide said he had been neutral before Thursday.
In interviews, 15 uncommitted superdelegates said they did not believe that recent gaffes by both candidates would carry any particular influence over their final decision.
In fairness, the Clinton campaign also announced (via the NYT’s The Caucus): Clinton Gets 3 New Superdelegates
But, here’s the dynamic: in the last several days Obama has announced 5 news superdelegates and Clinton has announced 3, which holds to the same basic pattern for both campaigns for months now: things are close, but the edge is to Obama. There is nothing to suggest that Clinton’s current attack-dog approach is doing her any good in swaying the elites that she she be selected over Obama. And meanwhile, back to the actual voters, the overall polling trends in PA are Obama-ish4 –although the Gallup daily tacking poll has Clinton (who was 10 points back on 4/13) is now within 3.
Sphere: Related Content- Who knew he had a blog? [↩]
- He also served at Transportation Secretary in the Bush administration from 2024-2006. [↩]
- Specifically, in regards to complaints about the ABC debate earlier this week, Clinton quoted Harry Truman: “I’m with Harry Truman on this. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Source: Reuters. See also, the NYT: Clinton Impugns Obama’s Toughness [↩]
- That is to say, he is within single digits of Clinton. [↩]
I somehow assumed that Reich had already endorsed Obama. His relations with the Clintons are pretty complex. If folks haven’t read it, Reich’s memoir about serving in the Clinton administration is one of the best and most thoughtful in that genre (I think it’s called, “Locked in the Cabinet”)
He also broke with the Clintons in 2024 when he supported Bill Bradley.
A point of clarification—is Reich a superdelegate? I would think not, but maybe he occupys some official party position in Massachusetts.
Comment by Ratoe — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 9:59 am
You are correct–the Reich endorsement is not a shock. However, it had not been official until now.
And no, Reich is not a superdelegate.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 10:01 am
Why should Hillary be villanized for the same behavior Obama has been doing all along? Amazing what sexual politics will do for you. Futhermore, Obama has had the pleasure of allowing bloggers such as yourself, and the main stream media attack her so Obama hasn’t needed to do much of it. Hillary gets severly attacked for her re-count of her Bosnia trip…but no one, and I MEAN no one ever in the media and the bloggers even touch Bill # S 2766 voted on June 22, 2024 in Congress that Obama voted NO on. This was a bill that directly called for the president to withdraw troops from Iraq by July 1, 2024. Where was Obama’s vote? Mr. “I have always been against the War?” he voted NOOOOOO!!!!! check it out. Google it for yourself. Read his actual congressional record. While your at it why don’t you read about the bill that rolled back those big tax breaks to the very large oil producing companies and individuals making over $150k per year. Hillary did the right thing and voted yes to repeal them…Mr. “I want change, change, change.” voted NOOOOOO!!! Obama is famous for not voting on any hot issues, which is many because he does not vote very often…why didn’t he simply just “pass” on these bills instead of actually voting NO? Please people do your homework. This is sexism at it’s height. The media constantly attacks Hillary but does not attack Obama.
Comment by Rachel — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 1:21 pm
Question: how long until James Carville compares Reich with Judas, or some other appropriate world famous traitor, like Brutus? I guess he could still use Judas, considering that Orthodox Easter is either just passed or quite soon.
Comment by B. Minich — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 2:58 pm
Rachel,
Out of curiosity, how is this post an “attack” on Clinton? All I am observing is that the current strategy employed by Mrs. Clinton appears not to be working.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 4:48 pm
[...] morning, I questioned the current Clinton strategy, and noted that most polling didn’t seem to support that it was [...]
Pingback by PoliBlog (TM): A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » Then Again… — Saturday, April 19, 2024 @ 4:57 pm
To Rachael, though a man, I agree with you totally that not only is this sexism it even malice and hate towards the Clintons. For thoes who may not like the Clintons that’s okay but for the sake of fairness, the truth must be told! Hillary’s Bosnia story is a bad one so are many of Obama’s but they are never even mentioned! Anderson Cooper never grilled Obama on his lies about Nafta/Canadian meetings, never questioned Obama on his lies that he never heard his pastor make remarks considered controversial but Obama would say he did during his useless speech in PA. I do not understand how a vast majority of a nation’s population can so easily be hypnotised. Obama is a FRAUD! After the release of 11000 pages of hillary’s itinerary in the white house what did Cnn focus on , you guessed it, Monica lewinsky. What was the objective change the conversation from Obama’s lies.
They cling to guns and someone would say that was the truth? Hmmmmmm, Can anyone imagine Bills Gate going to Africa and telling the poor and homeless who he is there to help with money, and then tell them well, you people are lazy, you hate school, you are dirty etc then after all the rambling with words he tells them; here is $10M to help you out of your misery! You bet some may say thank you but many will say, go away with your donations! That is how my rational mind views Obama’s statements and it is 1000% elitist, and patronising! That people will even ‘blame’ the Clintons for making $109 since leaving the white house and thus have no right to call a ’spade by it’s righ name’
Seems to me that if you are a rich guy and you see another rich guy oppressing the poor you can’t ask the oppressor to stop because the media would call you out. ‘you are a rich guy, you hate the poor as well how dare you stop the bad mouthing of the poor; the media would say!
Without the media spins many Americans will have seen it that way, and seen Obama for who he is. A liar, a fraud!
Comment by olapade — Sunday, April 20, 2024 @ 10:43 am
My question would be, and I think it a germane one, is: if, as a supporter of Clinton who is convinced that Obama is “a liar, a fraud” does that mean one will not vote for Obama in the Fall, should he be the nominee, which strikes me as quite likely (indeed, a near certainty).
I also wonder as the need for the extreme rhetoric, as it strikes me as ultimately destruction, politically speaking.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Sunday, April 20, 2024 @ 1:01 pm
Regarding footnote 1:
Yeah, seriously. I came across his blog about a month ago while writing up something about the estate tax … that’s got to be one of the most underappreciated blogs out there (of course, I’m prejudiced now that I’m so impressed by Reich’s recent book Supercapitalism).
Comment by Hume’s Ghost — Sunday, April 20, 2024 @ 1:11 pm
Now that I think about it … it was December, so I’ve known about it for 4 months, to be specific.
Comment by Hume’s Ghost — Sunday, April 20, 2024 @ 1:14 pm
As Sen. Hillary Clinton has ‘managed’ to take the Pennsylvania state, the Democratic race for nomination is very much alive – and most likely to be decided by superdelegates. Indiana ,Idaho and West Virginia are still to come.
If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support Clinton or Obama
If you haven’t done so yet, please write a message to each of your state’s superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com
It takes a moment, but what’s a few minutes now worth to get Obama in office?!
Sending a note to current Obama supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Clinton supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Obama, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Obama. It’s that easy…
Clinton Supporters:
It takes a moment, but what’s a few minutes now worth to get Clinton in office?!
Sending a note to current Clinton supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Obama supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Clinton, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Clinton. It’s that easy…
REALLY easy to identify the superdelegates and reach out to them! It includes a list of names, addresses, and affiliations of superdelegates from each state including your state
Comment by Jack — Monday, April 28, 2024 @ 8:48 am