While Chuck Hagel still has not made any endorsement in the Presidential race, his wife Lilibet has called a news conference for 10:00 tomorrow morning in Alexandria, Virginia where she will endorse Barack Obama.
Lilibet Hagel said in an Associated Press interview that her decision was independent of her husband. She said she didn't know whether he would make an endorsement or whom he would support.
"You'd have to ask him," Lilibet Hagel said.
She said it will be her first endorsement of a Democrat and that perilous world conditions were a factor. [emphasis added]
"The fact is we're in two wars, two of the longest we've ever been in. We've run up a third of our nation's debt in just the past eight years. We're in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression," she said.
The Hagels know John and Cindy McCain, and she said her endorsement was not meant to slam them.
"This isn't anti-McCain. This is pro-Obama. I'm just convinced he's the right person," she said.
This has implications on a couple of levels. First, even though she goes out of her way to stress that this is not a slap at the McCain's who have been her NoVA neighbors for years, there is really no way it won't be seen that way. The Hagel's are not likely to be on John and Cindy's Christmas list this year, or probably any other year, for that fact. And they don't care. They are going back to Omaha where they are well liked and respected even by Democrats.
Lilibet Hagel is the perfect republican to grease the skids, too. She met Chuck Hagel when she worked for Mississippi Democratic congressman G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery and he was an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs who spent a lot of time in Montgomery's office.
But there is another reason this is important. What a lot of people may overlook is that Nebraska splits the electoral vote by congressional district, rather than winner take all, and eastern Nebraska and the area around Omaha - the area the Hagel's call home - is pretty Democratic.
McCain is concerned enough about losing that electoral vote that Sarah-geddon made a stop there today on very short notice, and I haven't heard about a cast of thousands greeting her plane in Omaha, have you?
McCain has violated the code of the Senate. He is going to be a pariah when he returns in January. Lilibet Hagel, who worked for a southern conservative Democrat before marrying a moderate Republican, making this endorsement tomorrow - before the debate - is a psychological boon to Obama and blow to McCain. And I hope it's just the first drop over the dam. |
