No Unity Here
June 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm by Jim Shella under Jim Shella's Political Blog
As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appear together on stage in Unity, New Hampshire it may be worth one last visit to the Jill Long Thompson/Jim Schellinger split here in Indiana.
A Schellinger public endorsement is probably out of the question now because the State Democratic Convention last week was the best opportunity to stage one. So who’s to blame?
Both Schellinger and Long Thompson contributed to the differences that stand in the way of a unity display. I’m told they talked on the telephone a few weeks back and Schellinger asked for a face-to-face meeting. Long Thompson agreed and instructed him to set it up with her campaign manager.
When Schellinger’s representative called about a meeting, he was told there was no longer any interest in the Long Thompson camp. Campaign manager Travis Lowe says Schellinger wanted to go back through the primary campaign and spell out grievances and, he said, its time to move forward.
But isn’t Long Thompson the one in need of an endorsement?
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jill Long Thompson, Jim Schellinger
I didn’t follow the primary race much, so I’m not really sure the differences between these two, but is there some unspoken requirement that a candidate has to endorse his opponent after the election?
Granted, usually they seem to, and since they are of the same party, most likely they share more viewpoints than the other party’s candidate. But, should party loyalty mandate that a primary candidate endorse the winner even when his/her ideas are much different?
If Schellinger does not think Thompson will make a good Governor, or that her policies are not sound/adequate/etc, then it is good to see him stand on his morals and not give a pseudo-endorsement.