If the "shocking" results of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary were supposed to derail Senator Barack Obama or catapult Senator Hillary Clinton's status back to "inevitable", they have done neither. Despite coming in a close second, Obama still received the endorsement of the massive Culinary Worker's Union in Nevada's upcoming caucuses. This union has 60,000 members in as state where the caucuses turn out something on the order of 40,000 voters.

In addition, he received the endorsement of Senator, and former Democratic standard bearer John Kerry. Kerry is not the first senator to endorse Obama, and he will not be the last. In fact, my first thought was that it was a dubious endorsement. I never thought Kerry was the best standard bearer. As a Dean supporter, I believed that the Democrats needed a nominee with clean hands on the Iraq war. I later thought that Kerry would have been a good "attack dog" VP nominee to the visionary that is/was John Edwards. Getting back to the here and now, the media consistently called Kerry's endorsement a snub of Edwards. While it is no secret that there is no great love lost between the 2004 running mates, I don't believe it was a snub. As attractive a candidate as Edwards is, it is clear that the race for the Democratic nomination is going to come down to Clinton and Obama. Edwards is going to do a good job of putting together as sizable band of delegates to take to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. This will give him a strong had in shaping the party platform, and it could give him the roll of king (or queen) maker in the not unlikely event that neither Obama nor Clinton can bring a clean majority of delegates to the convention. Unless something happens to make this something other than a change election, Edwards is likely to place the crown on Barack Obama's head. John Kerry is a smart man and an astute politician. He know this. He also has something else. He has the experience of having been in Clinton's position. For a long time, he was his party's front runner. He was the candidate that everyone expected to get the nomination, and he was the candidate that the Republicans prepared to face. And they were ready for him. They took his strengths and turned them back on him. They disected his voting record to make him look inconsistent, a flip-flopper. And they only had 4 years to get ready to him. With Clinton, the Republicans have had at least 16 years. They want her to get the nomination. They are ready for her and want to run against her. Hillary Clinton is the candidate that the Republicans want to face. Kerry knows what the Democratic nominee is up against, and his endorsement of the insurgent Obama over the established Clinton should be seen as a big caution sign.

In other news, the balance of the Democratic Primary season came into sharper focus. With Bill Richardson joining Joe Biden and Chris Dodd on the bench, we now have all the players on the field. First you have the gadflies, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel. Their candidacies are the type that don't end, and that's fine. They say the things that the front runners can't. Then you have Edwards, the afore-mentioned king or queen maker and Clinton and Obama. We haven't seen the last of Richardson. He would make a perfect choice for vice-president. While he doesn't have the national profile for the top of the ticket, he has a staggering resume and would bring tremendous experience to the ticket, which would be critical with Obama at the top of the ticket. Additionally, his status as Governor of New Mexico and as a Latino would put Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado in play for the Democrats, both by energizing the Latino voters and by being a respected leader from the region. Maybe he could even force the Republicans to spend some money defending Texas.

So moving forward, there are a number of states to watch. First you have Michigan and Nevada, both big tests of labor. These states should be firewalls for Edwards to get a win. Per my earlier analysis, I don't see Edwards getting out of the race. He will probably do well enough to keep getting delegates to exert influence in Denver. Next is South Carolina, the first crucial test of support for Obama and Clinton among African American voters.

After that, we have Florida which has been beyond analysis since 2000 followed by Super Dooper Tuesday when 22 states select their delegates. This will be the first test of each candidate's ability to mobilize voters on a national scale. It will be a test of the ability to run a media campaign, something that Kerry, with his own national organizations will be able to help Obama with.

One thing is sure. It's going to be an exciting election year.