A Clinton superdelegate defects

Joe Andrews has switched from supporting Clinton to Obama. I had never heard of him, but he was Chair of the DNC for a while, starting in 1999. So he has great reason to be loyal to Clinton. Andrew Sullivan posted his letter, which is rather long, but touches on all the major points. He actually calls out the Clintons on their behavior during this campaign in very clear terms. That can only mean that he isn't afraid of them. He must be very confident that Obama will win the nomination and the general election, because he ain't getting no love from the Clintons after this. He's from Indiana, so his switch is highly relevant right now.

There was a minor bit of melodrama in the news around this switch today. Really minor: Howard Wolfson, one of Clinton's head honchos, questioned whether or not Andrews is really from Indiana. He lives in Washington now, but apparently his family goes back generations in Indiana, and if he wants to say that's where he's from, he should be able to. And it's probably not a good idea for the Clinton campaign to raise the issue of where someone is from, with their candidate being the Senator from a state she had never lived in. Josh Marshall points out that it's just another one of those annoying little escapades from the Clintons. They can't just be graceful and say "Well, we're disappointed, but we look forward to working with him in the future, blah blah blah." They just seem to have this need to stick it to people. And they do it publicly.