Jumping on the bandwagon

I have a self-acknowledged love/hate relationship with all things political. Having dabbled on the political fringes for far too long, I am slowly -- very slowly -- learning how the political process works. And when I say how the process works, I am most certainly not talking about what you learn in textbooks. I mean the sausage-making process that results in political decisions.

So I find great humor in the massive political courage shown by some of Missouri's top Democratic officials who last Tuesday threw their impressive support as superdelegates behind the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. It probably should be mentioned that this groundswell of Missouri courage came just after Obama had successfully secured enough delegates to be the party's nominee.

Attorney General Jay Nixon, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, state Democratic Party chairman Jack Temporiti and vice chairwoman Yolanda Wheat all managed to hitch their stars to Obama's wagon just as it pulled out of the station.

These fence-sitting Democratic leaders -- along with superdelegate state Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal -- waited until the water was safe enough to lend their support to the Obama campaign. And it's that political courage that too often gives politics a bad name. Believe me, politics needs no help in the bad-name category.

Just about all of these brave men and women compared Obama to John Kennedy (as if they had almost been given some political talking points from on high). But while lavishing praise on Obama, none mentioned why exactly they had waited -- unlike Sen. Claire McCaskill -- until it was safe to endorse Obama.

Look for the Obama/Kennedy comparison to be a recurring theme in the upcoming election cycle. It's most obvious that the Democratic officials from Missouri got the memo since their comments mentioned the comparison repeatedly.

OK, so I'm confused. If Obama is the second coming of JFK, why did these bright, energetic, politically savvy officials not jump on his bandwagon earlier? Joining the team after it had already clinched the title seems somewhat disingenuous at best. At its worse it's cowardly and politically weak.

I give McCaskill full credit. Though I disagree with her choice, at least our freshman senator had the political guts to take a stand when it was not necessarily popular. She has been proven right with her choice, and she'll get a front seat in the Obama family circle. Don't look for the late arrivals to be so favored.

If you want the spotlight to shine favorably on Missouri in the eyes of the Obama campaign, you do what McCaskill did and take a stand early. If you want to be viewed as political opportunists, do what the other Missouri Democratic officials did.

Reminds you of the old saying, "No guts, no glory."

Michael Jensen is a Southeast Missourian columnist and publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Mo.