Clinton Ally Defects to Obama

[General Zod]

Lawlz

(CNN) — Robert Reich, a former Clinton cabinet member and longtime friend of the former president, has formally endorsed Barack Obama's White House bid, saying Friday that "my conscience won't let me be silent any longer."

"Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so," Reich wrote on his blog. He served as the Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997 and is currently a professor at UC Berkeley.

"His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding," Reich continued. "His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers. His ideas for improving our public schools and confronting the problems of poverty and inequality are more coherent and compelling. He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming."

Reich, whose relationship with the Clintons dates back to their law school days at Yale, has long been a critic of the New York senator's White House bid. Shortly before the Iowa caucuses in January, he wrote that voters would have a choice "between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who's walked the walk."

"I don’t get it," he wrote then. "If there’s anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it's Barack Obama. HRC’s campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything."

Reich also criticized Bill Clinton earlier in the year over the former president's sharp attacks on Obama in South Carolina.

“Bill Clinton’s ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former president, his legacy, or his wife’s campaign," he wrote in January. "Nor are they helping the Democratic Party."

Asked to respond to Reich's endorsement, Clinton spokesman Mo Eleithee said, "Didn't he endorse him last year?"

Reich is the latest former Clinton administration official to announce his support for Barack Obama. Last month, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who held several positions under Bill Clinton, also came out in support of the Illinois senator. Clinton supporter and James Carville later called that as an "act of betrayal." Carville is a CNN political analyst.

I eagerly await stories of Clinton's camp calling him a traitor.

[Masami von Weizegger]

I eagerly await stories of Clinton's camp calling him a traitor.

Mmm.

Clinton treats it almost like a sports team. It's not about who's better or who's right, you don't change the team you support, no matter how bad, how dire or how ill-suited for challenges ahead the team is, you should go out there, wave your flags, cheer for them and support them.

Heads up, Hillary, if even allies are turning on you and your negative bullshit then YOU are doing it (campaigning) wrong.

[Alan Bolte]

I've read a few of Reich's blog posts, and found them to be sane and reasonably well informed.

Love the Clinton spokesman's response. "Didn't he endorse him last year?" I guess Reich was already on the unimportant/traitor list for his earlier criticism of Hillary.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

I eagerly await stories of Clinton's camp calling him a traitor.

And we shall name her traitor, hypocrite, and coward.