John Kerry Endorses Barack Obama

Massachusetts Senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry announced his support and endorsement of Illinois Senator Barack Obama, today on January 10. The announcement came as a bit of a shock to presidential hopefully John Edwards who was Kerry's Vice Presidential running mate in the 2004 election. John Kerry affirmed his support for Obama in an Obama rally in Charleston, South Carolina, earlier today. According to CNN, John Kerry also sent out an email to his 3 million email subscribers list stating that the next president of the United States, "can be, should be, and will be Barack Obama." At the rally in South Carolina that Kerry attended, he stated that Obama is "a candidate to bring change to our country."

The endorsement from Kerry figures to have little impact although the Obama campaigning is claiming that Kerry's endorsement will be a big boost to his campaign. However, many political analysts remain skeptical. The Kerry endorsement figures to be a big blow to the Edwards campaign who believed that they would receive his endorsement.

However, as for statistics between Obama and Clinton, the Kerry endorsement will have little impact if at all. Kerry won the Democratic Party nominee but lost to President Bush in an election year which the Democratic Party should have won with an ongoing, unpopular war in Iraq. Kerry was widely criticized as a flip flopper and referred to as simply "not-Bush." Democrats across the country voted for Kerry simply because he was not George W. Bush, rather than Kerry's policy stances or his past experience. Kerry was not a popular choice among Democrats to represent the party despite winning the Democratic primary.

The biggest impact that Kerry's endorsement figures to have is for the Democratic primary in the state of Massachusetts. Undecided voters in Massachusetts who are decided between Obama and McCain might lean more towards voting for Obama because of the endorsement. Undecided Democrats in the state may also decided to cast their vote for Obama as well. However, nationally the Kerry endorsement means very little and the state of Massachusetts doesn't have that many delegates to affect the overall Democratic primary. Still, for Senator Obama, the Kerry endorsement should be taken as a positive because Kerry could have endorsed either of Obama's Democratic rivals.

Kerry's endorsement brings John Kerry back to the forefront of Democratic politics after being out of the spotlight for so long. Perhaps Kerry is vying for the Vice Presidential nominee, hoping that Senator Obama wins the party nominee and selects Kerry to be his running mate.