McCaskill to Endorse Obama, Might Have Something to Do with ‘06 Comment

The AP is reporting that Senator Claire McCaskill is going to endorse Barack Obama for President today.

McCaskill has praised Obama often and was widely believed to favor the Illinois senator over Clinton. But the Senate freshman had resisted openly supporting a candidate until now, saying she wanted to preserve working relationships with Senate colleagues.

She said last week that she identifies with the desire for change that Obama supporters have reported to pollsters.

One factor in McCaskill’s endorsement may have been that her relationship with Hillary Clinton has been a bit shaky dating back to when McCaskill was running for the senate in 2006.

During an appearance that year on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, McCaskill said she didn’t want former President Bill Clinton, who had previously appeared at a rally for McCaskill in St. Louis, anywhere near her daughter. PubDef.net learned that the next day a fundraiser the Clintons had scheduled for McCaskill in New York was canceled.

Here’s the transcript from that October 8, 2006 show:

MR. RUSSERT: You’re having Bill Clinton come in to raise money for you. Do you think Bill Clinton was a great president?

MS. McCASKILL: I do. I think—I have a lot of problems with some of his, his, his personal issues. I said at…

MR. RUSSERT: But do you…

MS. McCASKILL: I said at the time, “I think he’s been a great leader, but I don’t want my daughter near him.”

MR. RUSSERT: You said that, according to New Yorker magazine, that you don’t think Hillary Clinton would be a good Democratic nominee because she couldn’t win Democrats in Missouri. True?

MS. McCASKILL: Well, you know, honestly, the presidential politics is going to get very intense and very, frankly, there’s going to be a lot of back and forth after November. I don’t want to get into presidential politics today.

MR. RUSSERT: Would you like to see her president?

MS. McCASKILL: You know, I, I, I think any Democratic nominee is going to be better than this president.