Dean loses Cifuentes endorsement?

[bicentennial_baby]

"So there's plenty of Southern comfort to go around and some discomfort as well. For his part, Dean received a little bad news about February 3 Thursday when Alvaro Cifuentes, chairman of the DNC Hispanic Caucus, pulled his support, citing discomfort with the Vermonter's post-caucus speech.

Cifuentes is a superdelegate, one of more than 800 party leaders and elected officials who will have an automatic vote at the convention in Boston.

Cifuentes is influential among Hispanic leaders in the February 3 primary states of New Mexico and Arizona.

"I have been struggling for the past 48 hours with the performance I saw on TV late Tuesday night. I instinctively turned it off after the first few minutes," Cifuentes wrote. "I respectfully withdraw my present endorsement to Dean's candidacy and wish him well in his presidential aspirations."

While Cifuentes has not endorsed another candidate, DNC sources said he has circulated an e-mail that heaped praise on Clark. Stay tuned."


http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/23/mgrind.day.fri/index.html

I offer my sincere condolences to the Dean camp, if someone's going to endorse, they should have the balls to see it through, imho.

[AP]

1. Once these endorsements were cited as best reason to support Dean.

Wanna bet endorsements are irrelevant now?

[Guaranteed]

2. Who said they were the best reason to support Dean?

On edit: For the record, the best reason to support Dean is that he's going to give real opposition to Bush.

[SheilaT]

4. All I know is that as an ordinary voter out there,

endorsements mean very little to me. It's nice if someone I admire and respect endorses my candidate, but it hardly matters to me if a union I don't belong endorses my guy, or if someone I don't particularly care for endorses someone else.

No endorsement makes me fundamentally rethink why I support my candidate.

[eissa]

3. That really irritates me

and not just because I'm a Dean supporter. Talk about fair-weather friends. I still say those who withdraw endorsements just because your guy isn't the front runner anymore speaks worse for you than for the candidate.

[AP]

8. It cuts both ways. Fair weather got them on, stormy weather got you off.

A big reason many endorsed him was because they said he could win. Jesse Jackson Jr said was willing to put electability above race (or at least he implied as much in his response to Sharpton when he said you can't expect people to be on ALL the same pages).

If Dean is not winning, the entire reason for endorsing him disappears.

[dfong63]

12. not for me

If Dean is not winning, the entire reason for endorsing him disappears.

not for me. initially Dean wasn't expected to win IA and NH, and i for one still supported him. i'll still back Dean even if he loses both. for comparison, Clark didn't even have the guts to compete in IA. why is it that supporters of other candidates were saying their guy could afford to lose both IA and NH, but Dean supposedly can't? Dean has a national strategy. it would have been great to win IA, and it'd be great to win NH, but i don't think they're make-or-break.

i support Dean because IMHO he's the boldest in speaking the truth about the Bush criminal enterprise. yes he's angry, and so am i. any candidate who's not angry is either ill-informed or misguided.

[AP]

16. Yes, if you were one of the first 100,000 or so.

However, I think there's a pretty good argument to be made that supporters 250,000-600,000 might have been getting on the bandwagon because they thought it was coming in first place, and not because they placed a higher value on much else.

It's those people about whom you'll have to worry.

[Nicholas_J]

19. The point is to win

If you cannot win your own party, you cannot compete with the opposing party. Statistics bear out that most voters will got with the most electable candidate in the end, and not one who's platform tells them what they want to hear.

Given the large rift in America over Bush electability takes an even larger percentage of the reason to vote for a candidate.

[Loren645]

20. It shows the faux-endorsers to be real spineless weasels.

They don't even pretend to have a good reason.
Dean's demeanor in that rally was that of an exhausted man,
losing his voice, and showing leadership for his many volunteers
in the crowd.

But, it's campaign season. And the Dems have bulls eyes on 'em.

[Ripley]

5. What a loser if that's his reason to drop his endorsement.

Because the guy he supported (obviously for substantial reasons if he is a thoughtful person) gave an emotional speech and yelled?

Shallow typical pink-tutu wearer.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. i wear pink tutu's

this is why endorsements are ridiculous. they should all wait till primaries are over and then start endorsing against bush.

[WI_DEM]

6. well our fair weather friend may be in for a surprise

in New Mexico. Time will tell.

[John_H]

7. I'm sure he's quaking in his boots at Vermont Governor Dean's awsome

influence in New Mexican politics.

[xultar]

9. No shit, that is why endorsments are stupid.

Party officials shouldn't be so quick to endorse anyone. Then to take it back is surely screwed up.

If you endorse someone you take on warts and all. We all take it forgranted that they did their homework enough so they made an informed decision. Apparently, this wasn't done. Regardeless of that

DEAN IS A GOOD GUY, he got a little carried away. That should have nothing to do with reasons for pulling endorsements.

Mark my word, endorsements will be a thing of the past...

[madison]

11. How many Republicans jumped ship and turned away from Bush...

How many Republicans jumped ship and turned away from Bush after Bush's ridiculous and over-the-top borrowed-flight-suit landing on the aircraft carrier?

One thing you have to credit Republicans for is they stay glued to their candidate through thick and thin.

Some said Dean didn't act "presidential'!

I ask: Compared to whom?

That idiot we have now, who borrowed a flight suit and pretended he had just landed a jet on an aircraft carrier, and then "pranced" around the deck pretending to be some military hero when, in fact, he had gone AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard duties during the Vietnam war? I guess being in the "champagne" outfit wasn't even cushy enough for Our George.

Presidential?

Bah humbug.

[lurk_no_more]

13. After NH if dean doesn't pull at minimum a "STRONG" third

I think we'll see more of this type of abandoning ship.


And then there were none!
” JAFO”

[dfong63]

14. condolences to Cifuentes

he just made himself look like a complete fool.

and condolences to whoever is unlucky to get the next endorsement from this jackass.

[returnable]

15. First Durkin, now Cifuentes...

That sucks for the Dean campaign. Gotta question how strong their support was in the first place.

Anyone remember these kinds of defections occuring in previous primary fights? Is this common? :shrug:

[curse10]

17. This is bad news for Dean

if he's losing superdelegates. It will be interesting to see where Cifuentes' support goes.

[in_cog_ni_to]

18. Ouch, again. n/t

[funky_bug]

21. Don't want him

Thanks, but no thanks. His endorsement would mean little, knowing it was not in support of a candidate, just an attempt at sharing in the spotlight of the front runner.

"Ask not what I can do for a candidate, ask what that candidate can do for ME!" Nice attitude, huh?