Vilsack to Endorse Hillary

No big surprise here:

Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a major political coup, captured the endorsement of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who recently abandoned his own presidential bid, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

Vilsack and his wife, Christie, planned to make the endorsement on Monday when the New York senator will be in the state, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the planned formal statement next week.

Clinton spokesman Mark Daley would not confirm Vilsack's endorsement, but did say the campaign had a major announcement planned for Monday in Des Moines.

And, no, this is not "a major political coup." It would have been one if he had chosen to endorse anyone but Hillary. When he decided to end his campaign, pretty much everyone expected him to endorse Hillary. They are both DLC'ers and he went with the safe establishment candidate (John Kerry) last time around. Remembering the poll numbers Vilsack had in his own state (somewhere in the teens) I don't think he wields enough influence to decide the winner. This race is far from over, in Iowa or anywhere else, as we were all reminded just yesterday: anything can happen.

AFL-CIO to Announce Endorsement After Las Vegas Meeting

This campaign season is getting weirder and weirder, in that Nevada seems to get more prominent. The Hotline On Call blog reports that the AFL-CIO will announce its endorsement earlier than usual, and apparently will make its decision in Las Vegas, hopefully not under the influence of gambling and drinking:

According to AFL-CIO spokesperson Steve Smith, they are "working out details right now" for their WH '08 endorsement and are likely to announce their decision in early March, following their first Executive Council Meeting since the Nov. '06 elections in Las Vegas, NV, March 6th - 8th.

Each of the 54 national and international labor unions within the AFL-CIO has their own respective endorsement processes and must be considered in forming the general AFL-CIO endorsement. The AFL-CIO endorsed Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in Feb. '04, but Smith noted they "do not usually" make their endorsement decision as early as they plan to this cycle.

From the speculation that I've seen, both Hillary and Edwards are the favourites to get this endorsement. This early decision is obviously bad news for the underdogs.

Looking Back on January

While I was in the States for the last three weeks, I did get a chance to see a lot of the brouhaha on TV but had hardly a chance to blog about it. So, here is a little January recap.

Candidates announcing in January:

Chris Dodd, Joe Biden

Candidates kinda announcing in January:

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson

Candidates giving up, before announcing, in January:

John Kerry

Candidates waiting for awards (think Oscar and Nobel Peace Prize) before announcing in the fall:

Al Gore

That's basically it. Now, we're just waiting for some of them to show up. I know Edwards has been here. But other than that it is starting to look like this is Bill Richardson's state to lose. Wonder when the big guns will show up. And who of them will actually go into the wild, wild west like Battle Mountain, Ely or Pahrump? Or will they all just stay in Vegas, Reno and Carson Valley? We'll wait and see.

Less than 12 months until the caucus...