JK's made it clear that he chose to endorse Obama not as a slap back at Edwards or as a shot across B/Hillary's bow, but because he honestly believes that Obama is the Real Deal this time.
That being said, JK's been careful not to get sucked into the why/when quagmire in re all the rumors saying that this is a payback endorsement, even when Snuffy was trying to get him to go there on teevee the other morning.
He did provide a window into his (controversial) decision the other day, though -- and also in typical JK fashion, he did it in a reply to a comment in a Daily Kos diary he'd posted, rather than as one of a calculated series of soundbites doled out to the Legacy Media drones:
You make an interesting point about the timing of my endorsement, and it's actually something I wrestled with. Let me share my thinking with you a little.
First, in my judgment, the outcome of this race is far far from clear. It's a dogfight. I endorsed Barack after he'd lost a tough fight in New Hampshire. I actually think that tells you how much I believe in my choice more than had I jumped on a bandwagon of some kind. If I had wanted to wait until the outcome was clear, I wouldn't have endorsed yet. This is still a very open race. I'm not playing it safe.
But the second point -- I want you to know this. It was a difficult decision. I gave a lot of thought to the timing. I wrestled with a feeling that for friends and colleagues of mine, and people I really cared about who were grinding it out in Iowa, they deserved the chance to make their case to the voters on their own, and not have the perception of someone parachuting in to get in the way of the intimate process that is Iowa.
I remember feeling that way and bristling a little bit before Iowa and New Hampshire myself in 2003 and 2004 when some big name endorsements seemed to block out the sun for a few news cycles! And I took that to heart and really struggled with it this time. So, you may disagree with it, but I want you to know my thinking.
by John Kerry on Wed Jan 23, 2008 at 03:02:47 PM PST
Of course, as is their wont, the Kossacks (and those of their ilk here on DU as well) immediately assumed that he was referring to Biden and Dodd as the only friends and colleagues in question. Bah. Imho, he's a lot bigger person than they assume him to be, and while his relationships with the two non-Obama front-runners in this race might be complex they are not binarically negative.
More to the point -- again, in typical JK fashion -- he was acutely aware of how many of his loyal, hardworking supporters and former campaign staffers have already been out there busting their asterisks for their own dogs in this fight.
And he carefully weighed the effects that his endorsement of someone other than their dogs would have on them as individuals, outside of the obvious political calculus that the armchair quarterbacks in the LM and in Left Blogistan seem determined to attribute to a personal decision that, quite frankly, they actually know not a damn thing about.
I'm just sayin'.