Some obscure but good endorsements for Obama today. From the left, but the establishment left, Robert Reich endorsed Obama. He was Clinton's Labor Secretary, and an old friend of Clinton's from Oxford and Yale Law School. It's not unexpected - he hasn't been that close to the Clintons. As Josh Marshall puts it at Talking Points Memo, "since the late 90s [Reich] has been in what I would call polite opposition to the Clintons." That's the endorsement from the left, although Reich is more of an old-fashioned liberal than a real leftist. He's a regular commentator in various media, so he's more well-known than he would be on the basis of being Clinton's former Labor Secretary. So it's a bit of good news.
From slightly to the right, at least in the Democratic Party, Sam Nunn and David Boren, former senators from Georgia and Oklahoma, endorsed Obama today. Both of them have been out of office for a while, but for people who know them, these are significant. They're both somewhat, conservative, as Democratic senators go, but both also highly respected. I remember Nunn as one of the most serious politicians I've ever seen. He makes Carl Levin look like Santa Claus (and I say that as a huge fan of Carl Levin. And as a huge fan of Santa Claus).
What is significant is that they are not just endorsing Obama, they're joining his team as advisors. Nunn in particular has great foreign policy/national security credentials, as a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Any questions about Obama's appeal in the heartland will be somewhat alleviated by the presence of Boren, who is currently president of the University of Oklahoma.
A president is judged in part by the quality of the people that he attracts. Obama is attracting the best.
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