New Democratic Coalition? Obama endorsements pouring in

Scoop: Obama Holding Back Big National Endorsements

The Field has learned that the Obama campaign has at least one of those “big three” endorsements - yes, stay calm, I’ll tell you which in a moment if you haven’t figured it out already - fired up and ready to go, but apparently feels it doesn’t need to roll the big guns out in order to win New Hampshire.

The Iowa victory, in fact, provoked a traffic jam of national Democratic party leaders and politicians that have phoned in to jump on the Obama bandwagon. At this point there are so many piled up in the in-box that it’s a logistical nightmare to schedule the timing of the endorsements. Starting yesterday with Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and today spinning Bradley’s three-point shot, the coalescing of a new Democratic coalition has begun to fall like droplets of Chinese water torture aimed at the morale of the Clinton organization.

If Obama wins New Hampshire, look for one or more to soon test the “it’s time for all of us to unite behind our party’s eventual nominee” trial balloon. Pressure on Clinton to drop out of the race before February 5th will be intense, including from within the New York state Democrats.

On the other hand, part of the delay may be that, with John Kerry’s coming Obama endorsement (you heard it here first on The Field), the Obama campaign may want to simultaneously send out a fund appeal to his three-million-strong fundraising list from 2004. And that takes a bit longer to stamp and lick all those envelopes than simply calling a press conference.

It makes perfect sense that Kerry will back Obama. After all, he gets most of the credit for “discovering” the young talent and tapping him to give the keynote address at the ‘04 Democratic National Convention, the speech that launched a thousand ships.