Anatomy of an endorsement

Adam Columbus OH — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:45:54 GMT

Wow. This definitely lowers the value of this endorsement.

Anatomy of an endorsement

Amy B Portland, Me — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:48:10 GMT

see! God wanted Edwards to get the endorsement!

Anatomy of an endorsement

--NSMSNBC — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:50:46 GMT

Wow, they make a pretty good case against involving non-profits in politics.

Anatomy of an endorsement

jerry/corpus christi texas — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:51:31 GMT

Why didn't they postpone the vote?

Calling himself a union man through and through, Woodill says that the union and the international will “find itself eating crow” because the candidate they don’t want, Senator Hillary Clinton, will end up becoming the Democratic nominee.

If Hillary does get the nomination, then the union can do the right thing and vote for Mitt or Rudy.

Anatomy of an endorsement

Desperate, Overland Park Kansas — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:58:44 GMT

I love it...Tout Senator Clinton's endorsement following a poor debate showing, even sinking so low as to tease it, and then we print an endorsement slam on Edwards.
I am liberal and was beginning to like the reality based non-biased reporting that was starting to happen on NBC. But I can see that Chuck Todd and the other Clinton hacks at MSNBC are not willing to accept a real candidate of substance (see Edwards, Obama, Biden, hell even Dodd). You all might as well be Fox News Light or HCNBC. Either you commit to being a people oriented channel independent of corporate lobbying influence or you might as well just be honest and program like Fox News. Don't think that the American people don't know what you are doing. This whole puppet on the left or puppet on the right scam will one day fall, and media that are embracing the fall and portraying reality on the web are showing swells of support.
Good luck jokers, television news will soon be a thing of the past. We are getting sick of your biased infotainment with complete disregard for any substance or policy discussion. We are not five years old. I'm moving back to PBS, boring, but at least it's honest.

Anatomy of an endorsement

Marbw — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:22:05 GMT

So basically, the actual members(working ppl) can choose to help whoever they want. I think that is true for all union members. Again, the working members of these union can decide ehich candidate to help out. It sounds like the NH workers are 50-50(more or less). Good news for B Obama that it was so close.

ps..In the 2004 primary, D Gephardt had over 15 union endorsements heading into Iowa. I believe that H Dean had SEIU and other big union endorsements then too. Stay tuned

Anatomy of an endorsement

Kay Weiss, Wheaton IL — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:40:21 GMT

SEIU is a pretty lame excuse for a labor union - who really cares who they endorse. They're trying to hack into nursing homes in IL without much success

Anatomy of an endorsement

Kay Weiss, Wheaton IL — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:40:57 GMT

SEIU is a pretty lame excuse for a labor union - who really cares who they endorse. They're trying to hack into nursing homes in IL without much success

Anatomy of an endorsement

Edrie, Arlington, VA — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:11:24 GMT

Does anyone remember the fable about the fox and sour grapes?

It seems that Mr. Woodill is not so much a union man "through and through" as he is a whiner because he didn't get his way. Taking this spat outside the room and to the press is childish.

Moreover, there is much in this story that leaves one with questions.

--"The members of the board had voted 7-5 to endorse Obama, but through a quirk in the process, none of the board members present chose to make a formal motion to give the nomination to him."--

Don't know what they were voting on if it wasn't a motion, but in most groups that operate with meeting and voting rules, a vote requires a motion. Otherwise, it's called taking a sense of the group and is not a vote, binding or otherwise. [Note that it appears that there were 12 individuals participating here.]

--"The board voted without him, split 8-8 between Obama and Edwards. Local 1984’s president Gary Smith cast the tie-breaking vote, handing the endorsement of 10,000-member union to Edwards."--

Unless Smith is president of the board and as such only votes to break ties, there was never an 8-8 split--unless you're going to call it like a ball game as in "it was 1-1 after the first minutes," "at the 4 minute mark, the score was 4-2 Edwards." Further, note that there are now 17 individuals participating in this vote, 5 more than in the previous 'quirk'. Again, the story and perhaps Mr. Woodill don't provide us with sufficient information to know whether there was an issue of whether there was a quorum present at the previous meeting so we are left to speculate.

If Mr. Woodill is unhappy with how the state council selected the candidate to endorse (and I've heard there was at least one member of the council who wanted to endorse Huckabee and that the Huckabee and Obama supporters tried to work together to unseat Edwards--strange bedfellows that), he should take it up with the state council and their rules. Running to the press is hardly the way to win this battle.

Anatomy of an endorsement

diane — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:33:14 GMT

I think it sad that Obama almost won this but, since I like Edwards as well, I want to congratulate him and his supporters. things like this probably happen more often than we know.

Anatomy of an endorsement

rosie, crestiview, FL — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:04:07 GMT

This is not the true story. Huckabee was mad because he did not get a chance to try to get the endorsement, so he called the Obama camp and told them he would try to help them get the endorsement. There you have it, a repug trying to help Obama. Need I say more. Except to say that Lieberman defended Hillary on her yes vote for his ammendment and said it was sad that democrats trusted Iranians more than they trusted Bush or himself. This is the same man that kissed Bush and told democrats to obey Bush when it came to Iraq. I have to say that trusting Lieberman or Bush is like trusting a chicken hawk with your chickens.

Anatomy of an endorsement

Paul, OH — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:27:49 GMT

This is hilarious.. So if a woman is a candidate, you cannot ask her questions.. Is this how a presidency shoudl be run.."if you ask me questions.. then you are accusing me".. What a joke..

I am glad that finally people are waking up to see her double talk and double standards. I like her but when I see how she can FLIP-FLOP so well, it makes me wonder what she will do in the future.

There are a lot of women who just stand on the base of a "WOMAN IN THE OVAL OFFICE". No one has a problem to that but be careful who you will put in there. I fully support a woman but NOT THIS ONE. She is double talker and just explains why she remained SILENT when many women were ABUSED by BILL CLINTON. No matter how good a president you are, you cannot EXPLOIT A woman. President FORD was absolutely right when he said BILL CLINTON HAS A SEXUAL ADDICTION Problem and you think HILLARY did not know it. She chose to cover up since she knew that he would be helpful; for her in the political game. Isn't that obvious when they dont even live together now a days. How hypocritical for women when they support a WOMAN who has closed her to those who have been abused and also joked about MOMS as those who BAKE COOKIES..

Anatomy of an endorsement

Sharon — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:01:58 GMT

He couldn't vote by phone?

Anatomy of an endorsement

Louie Louie Ph.D, Seattle WA — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:59:33 GMT

Where did they dig up these "candidates", at Roswell?

Anatomy of an endorsement

Gary Stewart — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:40:29 GMT

I flat out believe the sourcing for this report was awash in sour grapes.

If it was so close, or questionable, why did the membership keep voting for Edwards?

The Boston Globe has a much clearer explanation of
what went on at SEIU.

Obama is starting to look more and more like he's not ready for prime time, what with the awful and disappointing debate and personal appearances, McGurkin, whining about Hllary's AFSME endorsement right after whining about SEIU's, and now, Joke Line (a.k.a. Joe Kline) has taken up his cause.

Anatomy of an endorsement

Southern democrat — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:04:44 GMT

Just vote democratic on election day. Get the repubs out of office!!

Anatomy of an endorsement

Blue Collar Joe, Penacook, NH — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:20:57 GMT

"NSMSNBC" says this makes a good case for not allowing non-profits to be involved in politics . . . so, we should only allow profit-making enterprises to be involved in politics? Laughable. Kay Weiss says SEIU is a lame excuse for a labor union . . . yes, they are just the second largest union in North America, with nearly 2 million members, are the nation's largest and most influential health care union, and are one of the only unions in the country that is growing. Yup, pretty lame. Kay must be afraid of the higher wages and benefits that come after a union "hacks in."

Anatomy of an endorsement

Sara, Union New Hampshire — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:31:09 GMT

To address some misconceptions; Mr. Woodill did not "run to the press" as some have accused. They came to him and he answered their questions honestly and accurately. Knowing him intimately, I can honestly say he is "a union man, through and through". He has fought for worker's rights for years. What Gary Smith did was nothing short of dirty politics and he should be ashamed. And as to other accusations: no man should be criticized for making a decision to put his family first. Shame on amyone who believes he should have put politics above his two week old infant!!!

Anatomy of an endorsement

Beth Campbell, Concord, New Hampshire — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:15:44 GMT

Yes the process was a bit of a circus. But in the end the endorsement process was above-board and quite legal. As a Dodd supporter I have no complaint with the way SEIU Local 1984 handled its endorsement.

As a member of the political education committee for SEA I am deeply troubled by the negativity I've seen from the Obama people. Their level of nastiness is something I'd expect from the other party. Unfortunately that nastiness carried over to some of Obama's supporters in the union. Some of our members need to remember that solidarity doesn't mean that we agree on everything. It does mean that we settle our disagreements among ourselves.. not in the press.

Just one note Aswini. The 50 votes were split among those who didn't want to endorse and those who were undecided.

Anatomy of an endorsement

peter phila pa — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:48:33 GMT

mike helping obama? that's crasy.just because hilay knows how to win against 'em