This is really surprising: freshman Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), a conservative, Reagan Democrat who trounced the odious Rick Santorum last year, has decided to endorse Barack Obama. That's another superdelegate, and someone with some serious credibility among working-class voters. Don't know how much it's going to help, but it certainly can't hurt. One wonders if this has something to do with the shabby treatment the Clintons gave Casey the Elder in 1992: they didn't let the man address the Democratic Convention that year, allegedly because of his pro-life views. Or maybe it's just because Casey, like all Democrats, wants this process to end and figures Obama is going to win anyway, so why not buy himself some added influence along the way? Or maybe he just thinks Obama's the better candidate, I don't know. The point is that this is big.
One of the commenters over at Marc Ambinder's (on the same thread) posits that Obama actually has support from much of the establishment (like Harry Reid, for example) since they never moved to endorse Clinton. Doing so in, say, November when Clinton had a 30-point lead would have been easy. I just think they're playing it safe: Clinton still has a lot of fans, and looking like she's being strong-armed out of the race could cause a schism in the party as well. Whatever happens, it's got to look like it's fair.
Here's another one, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), an Obama supporter, has urged Clinton to end her seemingly hopeless race. Leahy's a senior member of the Senate, so we'll see what comes of this.
