The reality of the endorsements is that they are important. The simple fact of the matter is that normal people are often too busy with work, family and other personal responsibilities to pay detailed attention to elections or to research the positions the candidates respectively take on various issues. Whether voters should somehow reorder their priorities to create time for political education and involvement is a separate matter. The demands of every day life prohibit some voters from doing that with any ease.
Thus, in a world where politics in general and campaign debates over certain particular issues occupy the back burner for many voters, endorsements can and do serve as a useful proxy for the candidate and issue research they might otherwise undertake in an ideal world.
For instance, take Bill Richardson’s recent endorsement of Barack Obama . While Richardson’s endorsement led to allegations of betraying the Clintons and of being a turncoat, it also carried a substantive message for those who trust Richardson — stripped of the message it sent about Richardson’s rejection of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, the endorsement told voters that Barack Obama’s views were more in tune with Bill Richardson’s than were Hillary Clinton’s. For a busy parent or worker, then, Bill Richardson, of whose positions they are already somewhat informed, serves as a conduit for getting at what Barack Obama stands for.
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While those giving endorsements often spell out the broad reasons that they support a given candidate, they do not often go into much detail. This is one of the infirmities of the system, but, nonetheless, Bill Richardson’s seal of approval acts as a surrogate for the time and effort that normal citizens would otherwise have to expend to research the issues. The danger, of course, is an over-reliance on such endorsements. However, to the extent that such endorsements may encourage voter turnout and further inquiry into candidates’ positions by average voters, they do serve a useful function in our democracy.
As a side note, it may also be worth pondering the underbelly of endorsements. Why would Richardson or any other endorser throw their political weight behind a candidate? It could be for ideological reasons, but it could be for something else, like a political appointment or other patronage. Here’s an interesting article on the topic from a paper in Richardson’s home state.