Obama’s big name endorsements don’t pan out

Highly publicized big name endorsements did not help Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) win some of the key battleground states in the Democratic primary Tuesday night.

Obama received major endorsements from Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry in Massachusetts, as well as Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Gov. Janet Napolitano in Arizona but he failed to win any of the states.

[Editors note: When this story was published, the Missouri race had been called for Sen. Clinton by the Associated Press. The race was later determined to be too close to call.]

{mosads}Political pundits have made much of Obama’s endorsements, especially the support of Kennedy. In the end, it was not enough to close the gap in Massachusetts or to wrest away the victory from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) in Missouri and Arizona.

Obama has been on the road campaigning with Kennedy and his niece Caroline. The group has been traveling to crucial toss-up states where Obama had been surging in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, including the Northeastern states that Clinton won and California.

Napolitano and McCaskill are part of a group of prominent red-state Democratic women to back Obama. The Illinois senator did win in Kansas, home of Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who is also supporting him.