By KEVIN NEVERS

When the time comes to endorse a presidential candidate—and to cast his super-delegate’s ballot—U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, will split the difference between principle and pragmatism.

Until then, he’ll keep his powder dry.

Visclosky told the Chesterton Tribune on Saturday, after the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor’s “Turn America Around” rally at the Duneland Falls Banquet Center in Portage, that it would be premature of him to endorse a candidate prior to the Indiana primary on May 6. “I do trust people’s ability to make up their own mind,” he said. “This is very unique for us, to have a competitive primary for president. . . . I want to know how people feel in the 1st Congressional District, how people feel in Indiana.”

In any case, Visclosky added, the Democratic Convention is months away, in August. “There’s no need to rush.”

Visclosky did not mean to “imply,” however, that he will automatically endorse the winner of the Indiana primary or for that matter that he will base his endorsement on any particular formula: the winner of the most delegates or of the greatest percentage of the popular vote nationwide, the winner of the most states or of the greatest number of big states. “I do reserve the right to exercise my independent judgment,” he said. “I myself have the right, as everyone in my district has the right, to make an independent judgment.”

Instead, Visclosky indicated that he will apply a twofold test: “not only who would make the best president but who has the best chance of winning.”

“I won’t sever the policy from the politics,” Visclosky said.

For Clinton

The Turn American Around rally was not without its endorsements, though. Speaking on behalf of Hillary Clinton was former Gov. Joe Kernan, who began his endorsement by recalling the personal kindnesses which she and her husband, when the latter was still in office, have showed his family over the years.

Kernan then touted Clinton’s experience. “Hillary Clinton is the candidate best equipped to arrive on the job on Day One and hit the ground running,” he said. “She’s been knocked down a lot but always picks herself up and dusts herself off. She has the experience and moxie.”

Clinton “will stop giving tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas,” Kernan said. “She will re-negotiate all trade agreements with environmental and pro-labor standards. . . . She will give tax cuts to the middle class. Everybody else must pay their fair share.”

Kernan had a few other policy prescriptions as well. “Blow up No Children Left Behind,” he said. “It doesn’t work. It’s an unfunded mandate.”

And, Kernan concluded, “It’s time to bring our men and women home from Iraq.”

On the topic of the day—health care—Kernan said that it is “unconscionable, immoral, that we don’t have health care for every man, woman, and child in the country. Hillary Clinton’s plan calls for covering everyone. . . . For us to do any less would be irresponsible.”

For Obama

Speaking on behalf of Obama was Illinois State Rep. George Scully, D-80th, who noted that he met Obama 12 years ago on Chicago’s South Side and was quickly impressed by the young man’s “ability to think of the big global vision.”

“For decades we’ve been waiting for change,” Scully quoted Obama. “We are who we’ve been waiting for. We’re going to bring about the change.”

But, Scully hastened to add, “it’s not enough to say we’re going to vote Democrat in the primary. We have to get the message out and be the emissaries. We need to tell our friends, family, and neighbors about the catastrophe if we don’t achieve change.”

Posted 4/14/2008