In case you haven't seen the news, Bill Richardson is endorsing Obama. I seriously doubt there's a band of diehard Richardson loyalists out there who were just waiting for instructions from their leader and will now flock to Obama; but the timing of the announcement--and Richardson's stated rationale: he loved Obama's race speech--may be a good indicator of the CW among superdelegates: that it's time to rally around Obama.
All that said, the most interesting thing about Richardson's endorsement, to me at least, is thinking about just how much it must piss off Terry McAuliffe. Here's one of my favorite bits of campaign reportage this year, from a piece Crowley wrote way back when about the mood on the Clinton campaign plane right after her defeat in Iowa:
The preternaturally jolly McAuliffe is a good man to have spinning for you in a pinch. But his good cheer dimmed when I asked him about Bill Richardson, who appears to have made an 11th-hour deal to throw his supporters to Obama. “How many times did [Clinton] appoint him?” McAuliffe marveled. “Two? U.N. Ambassador and Energy Secretary?” He looked at me, half-glaring, awaiting confirmation. “I don’t know,” I joked, “but who’s counting?” “I am,” McAuliffe said firmly.
Imagine what McAuliffe's thinking now.
--Jason Zengerle