Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

It’s not exactly chugging, but… –Video plays in IE & Safari for Macs– It’s also from a digital camera, so be forewarned.

After a brutal week, Clinton ends it on a very sweet note today. This
is a
huge endorsement for the Clinton campaign.

The choice, then, comes down to preparedness: Who is best prepared to confront the enormous challenges the nation faces — from ending the Iraq war to shoring up America’s middle class to confronting global climate change? The job requires a president who not only understands the changes needed to move the country forward but also possesses the discipline and skill to navigate the reality of the resistant Washington power structure to get things done. That candidate is New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

We came home from my husband’s company Christmas party not long ago to the
news. We’re looking for a new video camera at the moment, so we were forced
to fire up the digital camera to get something up for the occasion. After all,
since the conversation about Clinton and the DesMoines Register endorsement
earlier today, you know, where I said I’d chug a bottle of champagne if Clinton
got it, I had to keep my word. That I don’t ever chug anything, let alone champagne, was not a minor point, at least at the time. (It
all started with a simple conversation on yesterday’s Christmas post between readers Grey,
JoeCHI
and PamelaB
about this
New York Times article, which led to me saying, well, you can read
it here as well.)

No doubt this is crushing news for the Edwards campaign.

As for Obama, he did get the endorsement of the Boston
Globe, but he’s likely coveting
Clinton’s DesMoines Register endorsement right about now.

McCain garnered both the DesMoines
Register and the Boston
Globe. But will Republicans
give him the nod? Get ready for an all out Republican war. The question is whether Republicans
have any real conservatism left. Picking a national security nitwit like Huckabee
or Romney, even Rudy, isn’t exactly tradition, but that’s where they’re headed. McCain has come a long way from where he was a while back.

However, let’s remember that it takes more than endorsements to win the nomination.
The DesMoines Register hasn’t always played out in a nomination win. But that hardly matters to Clinton (or McCain) right now, because this is nothing but welcome news after a week of being hammered in the press.

It’s what endorsements from newspaper editorials are supposed to do. Make news and set a standard.
It’s also something Hillary garnered on her own. Bill Clinton can make a case, try to twist some arms with charm,
stand behind her, stump for her, but in the end it’s Clinton who had to close
the case. Ms. Hollingsworth, Carolyn Washburn, the paper’s editor, and Carol Hunter, the editorial page editor, didn’t pay attention to the horserace, which we’ve been talking about on my radio show with Chase Martyn for weeks, which hasn’t always been positive towards Clinton regarding the reality on the ground. They let each candidate make her or his case. On the Democratic side, they obviously thought Hillary Clinton made the best one.