Coy Clyburn Considers Campaign

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Conflicting stories about SC Rep Jim Clyburn:

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn won't be endorsing any of the seven Demo-crats left in the race for the White House, for now.

During a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Clyburn said he plans to remain on the sidelines in the Feb. 3 primary, although he cautioned that could change.

But he does think Howard Dean's over-the-top battle cry after his third-place finish in Iowa may cost him in South Carolina.

He also said Dean's late-night guttural howl could come back to haunt him.

http://www.charleston.net/stories/012204/wor_22clyburn.shtml





sources said that Clyburn, the state's most influential African-American politician, may announce he's siding with John Kerry, perhaps as soon as Friday.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/23/mgrind.day.fri/index.html

So what's the real story? Is he waiting till after NH or not?

[Democrats unite]

1. Sound to me like he wants to keep his mouth shut...

Till he can endorse someone who will be a safe front runner. I hate people like this. It's crap!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. Dearest Colleague ( more background )

Rep. Jim Clyburn sat in his Capitol Hill apartment Monday night drinking Jack Daniel's and Diet Coke and eating pork rinds. He was watching the results come in from Iowa on CNN, and they were not good. Dick Gephardt, the candidate Clyburn had endorsed for president, was finishing a distant fourth. Iowa voters had effectively ended Gephardt's campaign. And started Clyburn's cell phone ringing.

<snip>

Good chance it's a candidate calling, or someone on the candidate's staff, or in his family. Or a reporter, 36 of whom had phoned into a conference call Clyburn held a few hours earlier in which he answered their recurring question: No, he said, he has not decided whom he will support now that Gephardt's out. Clyburn says he received 60 to 100 endorsement-related calls between Monday night and Wednesday afternoon.

<snip>

Clyburn is still a little depressed about Gephardt's loss. Gephardt called Clyburn the morning after Iowa to thank him for everything. "It was a little bit emotional," Clyburn says of the call. "You want to see your friend do well."

Lucky for Clyburn, he has so many good friends calling to console him. To assure him that, indeed, Dick Gephardt is a good man, a decent man, and he'll be missed.

And, oh, about that endorsement . . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40122-2004Jan22.html