Spin Cycle

A tale of two candidates:

Coming out of the weekend, Obama gets the endorsement of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. He now leads among sitting senators, 14-12:

"In a statement provided to the Associated Press, Klobuchar said Obama 'has inspired an enthusiasm and idealism that we have not seen in this country in a long time.'

"Klobuchar, a freshman Democrat, said Obama speaks 'with a different voice, bringing a new perspective and inspiring a real excitement from the American people.' She compared him to the late Hubert Humphrey, who served as a senator from Minnesota and as vice president....

" 'My endorsement reflects both Barack's strong support in my state and my own independent judgment about his abilities,' Klobuchar said."

He also is on the verge of an endorsement from North Carolina's entire 7-person Democratic Congressional delegation, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and has taken a lead in Texas delegates based on the results of weekend caucuses there.

Clinton, meanwhile, spent the weekend fighting off pressure to withdraw, and got some possibly unwanted publicity when Richard Mellon Scaife, avatar of the right-wing anti-Clinton movement in the 1990s, said many kind things about her after she stopped by for an interview last week at his Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper:

"Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her.

"Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both.

"Sen. Clinton also exhibited an impressive command of many of today's most pressing domestic and international issues."

He cited her hardnosed views on foreign policy, shared desire to pull troops out of Iraq and shared disgust for the government's response to Katrina. Maybe her enthusiastic praise for a border fence and her enthusiastic bashing of Obama's plan to require the rich to pay a little more in Social Security helped too.

In any event, the turnabout from a guy who was a prime Clinton basher in the 1990s was enough of a surprise to prompt a NYT story. But does praise from a committed foe of Democrats really help her with her party and superdelegates? Or does it do mmore harm than good?