The 'Major Endorsement' That Wasn't

When Hillary Clinton announced her intention to campaign in South Carolina earlier in the week, her campaign sent out advanced notice that she would announce a 'major endorsement' during her speech in Spartanburg.

As it turned out, that 'major endorsement' was given by some two dozen local African-American clergymen. With all due respect to these men of the cloth, none of them are nationally known and none are known to have widespread influence on how persons vote.

Thus, the 'major endorsement' was anything but major and was much ado about nothing.

Over 50% of Democratic voters in South Carolina are African-American. Bill Clinton relishes his reputation of being 'America's first black President.' Bill and Hillary are very popular with the African-American community. It is no surprise that the local brethren announced their support for her.

The truth of the matter is that this particular endorsement is a concession prize of sorts. When a candidate fails to get the endorsement of a single major political figure in the state, and further fails to receive the endorsement of a single major newspaper in the area to boot, the blessings of a few African-American Pastors may seem to be a big deal.

And that is the problem. It isn't a big deal.

Hillary is losing ground. She has actually been in a free-fall in the polls ever since her dismal performance in the debate in October.

In addition, Zogby, Rasmussen, Reuters, and several other national polls show that for the very first time since the campaign began, the top three Republican hopefuls--Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney--would beat Hillary if the election were held today.

And that's not all. Word leaked out from the Clinton camp yesterday that Hillary's own internal pollster is feeling the heat from the campaign because of the bad news he has had to deliver lately.

I can only imagine. As difficult as Hillary is widely known to be in private, this may be a case of shoot the messenger for the bad news, although the bad news is the candidate herself.

Apparently Mrs. Clinton is going to need a lot more than the endorsement of two dozen black clergymen. She may need to see a Catholic priest for an exorcism.