My hometown paper The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (why won’t they give me a job) endorsed Barack Obama (and John McCain) in the Sunday edition. I know both Clintons have been criss-crossing Missouri like mad, but so was Obama. He locked it up.

And in the newspaper’s election poll it showed that Obama was competitive against all the Republicans running, sweeping any rival in a head-to-head match up. One caveat though, ANY Dem. running for prez would beat any Republican running in Missouri. Ouch.

The Post’s editorial board said they jumped on the hope bandwagon because they saw Obama as young, fresh and new. For what he lacks in experience, they feel he makes up in innovation. So sez the paper:

Barack Obama is aware of yesterday, but he is about today and tomorrow and next year. In a strong field of Democratic presidential contenders, he offers the best hope of transforming the debate and moving on to what America can be in the 21st century.

He is unlikely in many ways: He is young, only 46. He is the junior United States senator from Illinois, only a little more than three years out of the Illinois state Senate — as unlikely a forest for presidential timber as ever was. His middle name is Hussein. He spent his boyhood in Indonesia and Hawaii. His mother was a Kansan; his father was a Kenyan.

Did we mention he is black?

If America can get past all that, if America can unload its baggage and get on with the trip, there is no telling far and how fast it can go.

So we’ve got Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement? Check. Senator John Kerry? Check. Senator Pat Leahy? Check. About to wrap up Senator Ted Kennedy’s endorsement? You can cash that check because it’s in the bank.

Geez. If The Clintons are the political establishment, why is the phenom getting the backing the Kennedys (who backed the Clintons in the past) and a gaggle of east coast liberal blue bloods? This is a massive defection considering Ex-President Bill Clinton is the defacto head of the Democratic Party. The kudos are getting loud and brutal as party elders are sending a strong signal to the former cause celebre of the party.

All he needs is Al Gore’s endorsement and the writing will be on the wall. It will finally be official — the Clintons have few friends left in Washington.

It must get cold there in Barack Obama’s shadow. To never have sunlight on your face. I expect Hillary, et al to grin and bear it but those grapes have to be bitter. How do you stop this, this one-man-revolution? How do you kill a dream? And why would you want to be the one labeled as the dreamkiller if you managed to pull it off? What friends would you have left after you’ve slaughtered the philosopher king, golden child of the party elite? Golden child of the Kennedys, both Teddy and Caroline? To be compared to the Kennedys, slain brothers Robert and John, by the only surviving member of Camelot.

Writes Caroline in the New York Times:

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Nixon couldn’t beat that. An unpopular fellow with a grumpy demeanor, he came close to beating John F. Kennedy in 1960, but ultimately failed. He was the Vice President of a successful administration, but he paled in Kennedy’s made for TV light. John tapped into something so powerful, so viral that they called it “Camelot.” It didn’t matter that there were parts of Kennedy’s personal life and nature that were flawed. The Kennedys were the thing Americans aspired to be, the closest to royalty we ever had.

I know when I look at Michelle and Barack and their two lovely girls that’s what I see. I see our future, our Camelot. I want to believe. I want to see that dream come true. I’m a realist, though. I know that dream won’t come easy and that there is still a chance that it won’t come at all. Obama still has a lot of room to grow as a campaigner, but he’s learning as he goes. He’s adaptable. Which is the Clintons main problem, they can’t transcend and they can’t transform.

The Clintons are what they are. A political machine, a force to be reckoned with, but Hillary Clinton is not Bill Clinton. She is not a charmer. She is not a cajoler. She’s a stiff. Bill’s sins were forgiven time and time again because he was the greatest political machine of the modern era. The Michael Jordan of triangulation. But Hillary can’t bounce back from his missteps. Despite the ugliness of their campaign I believe that Bill will survive this. But at this rate his wife will not.

Despite the racial drama that unfolded in South Carolina, I don’t think the Clintons are actually racists. They are desperate. They had already written the narrative and they will fight to the death for it – Hillary becoming the first woman president. Bill Clinton geting back into the White House. Them on their perch up high where they survey all. A
nd they would beam bright and tell their detractors to suck on it. They said it couldn’t be done. But they did it. Comeback Kid, part two.

But what makes this harder than Bill’s runs in 1992 and 1996 he had the backing of the Kennedys, of long-time Democratic senators and governors. He had his party on his side. Is the party elite on his side now?

Ask the Kennedys.