They’ve Got that Loving Feeling: Baron Endorses Obamassiah

It came as no surprise to any reader of this blog, but Baron Hill has endorsed the Obamassiah in the Democrat civil war, err, presidential primary contest.

It was a long time in coming.

First, Baron’s wife wore an Obamassiah t-shirt on a taxpayer-funded junket to the Pacific Rim.

After that, Baron fawned about the Obamassiah in many a 9th District media interview, comparing the excitement around him to Robert Kennedy.

As I noted (also here and here), Baron took $12,500 from the Obamassiah in the 2006 cycle, but only $2,500 from Hillary Clinton; yet more proof that Baron goes where the money is.

Then Baron introduced the Obamassiah at a campaign rally in Columbus, and the real footsie began.

The Baron-Obamassiah tour continued with Hill appearing with Obama at Nick’s in Bloomington (in a YouTube video that gave away, about 3 minutes in, his intent to endorse Obama, no less).

In New Albany, last week, Baron spoke at an Obamassiah town hall event with Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.

And now, on Wednesday, has come news that Baron Hill will indeed endorse Barack Obama for president.

(Read more after the leap)

From the Indy Star:

U.S. Rep. Baron Hill is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Hill’s endorsement is important beyond his influence as a member of Congress. The 9th District Democrat is one of the superdelegates both candidates are courting. Earlier, U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, who recently won a special election to fill the seat left by his late grandmother, former U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, also endorsed Obama. But the other Democratic members of the U.S. House — Reps. Peter Visclosky, Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth — have not.

In a statement released by his office, Hill — who will speak about his endorsement at an Obama rally tonight at Indiana University’s Assembly Hall in Bloomington, said that he considers both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be “formidable candidates” but that Obama is the best able to move the nation past partisan gridlock.

“Some have advised me to be cautious, to wait and see which way the electoral winds may blow. I confess that I have listened to those voices and been tempted by their reasoning. But, the stakes are just too high,” Hill said in the statement.

And the media roundup: Howey, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Politico, and the Obamassiah’s own website.

The Courier-Journal article’s title “Hill defends Endorsement of Obama” sort of sums up the whole political situation now for Baron Hill.

Hillary Clinton leads in southern Indiana by a two-to-one margin, despite the endorsement many weeks ago of Democrat Lee Hamilton, who used to represent the 9th District in Congress and who is certainly more respected and well-thought of (by Democrats and independents in these parts) than Baron Hill likely ever will be.

No surge in turnout from Marion County (ten thousand new voter registrations or not) is going to put Barack Obama over the top in southern Indiana; Clinton will carry the 9th District just like she carried rural areas in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and she will carry them big (a margin of two or even three to one would not surprise me).

Baron Hill could have sat things out, or even endorsed Clinton.

Instead, he threw in with the crazies from Bloomington, giving in to their pressure, and turned against the rest of his district.

Already, I have heard from many Democrats who are furious about Hill’s endorsement.

One told me that they would not give Hill any more money, nor another minute of their time. Another said they intended to demand their contribution back. A third said they had volunteered for Hill before, but would not do so again. None would go so far as to say they would vote for Republican Mike Sodrel, but all seemed seriously soured on Baron Hill in a way that I have never seen them before.

Such accounts sum up Baron’s situation in a nutshell; he doesn’t need rural Democrats anymore and feels that he can take their votes for granted.

It is Bloomington, that gave him the winning margin in 2006, that he needs.

And Obama has a nice list of new voters, young activists, and devoted donors that he can share with Baron Hill for the fall campaign, a juicy carrot sufficient to encourage many a politician to come down from the fence (particularly one as motivated by, let’s say, “material incentives” as Baron Hill).

Baron can take crap on the Democrat voters in the rest of the 9th District; he’s raised a million dollars for his campaign, so he doesn’t need their money anymore.

And he knows, whether he craps on them and regardless of how bad he treats them or how he votes, they will come back begging for more. They’ll vote for him in November, and many will still volunteer.

After all, grandpappy was a Democrat, and grandpappy was never wrong, and Baron Hill is a Democrat, so grandpappy would want them to vote for Baron, so they will.

And those that don’t? Well, they’ll be offset by all of those new voters from Bloomington and Monroe County (nevermind troublesome reports here and there that indicate Obama’s new voters tend to just vote for him, and leave the rest of the ballot blank).

Baron’s endorsement sort of sums up his attitude toward the entire district; Bloomington matters and nobody else does.

They insist on him being a lefty liberal loon, and he is all too happy to oblige them.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama finds Midwestern voters to be backwards, bitter folks that cling to our guns and our religion.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama spent twenty years attending Reverend Wright’s racist church of anti-American hatred (and said in his supposedly brilliant “More Perfect Union” speech that Wright was “like family to me” and he could “never disown” him), and only threw him under the bus this week (though he threw his own white grandmother under the bus first).

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama’s wife was never proud of America or of being American until her husband was running for president.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama is in deep with Tony Rezko, a shady and corrupt Chicago political money man who is presently under federal indictment.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama’s political career began in the living room of William Ayers, an unrepentant America-hating terrorist.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama supports partial birth abortion and has even opposed such common sense measures as the Born Alive Protection Act, which would protect a baby that somehow survives an abortion and is born alive from being murdered.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama opposed the war (supposedly from the start), but Baron Hill voted for it.

None of these things matter.

Bloomington matters and, clearly as far as Baron Hill is concerned, the rest of the 9th District can go to hell.

They’re going to vote for him anyway, right?