Yvonne Gates a member of the DNC Rules Committee, and Nevada superdelegate, has announced today that she is endorsing Barack Obama. Since she is a member of the Rules Committee Gates said that she intended to remain neutral until the Party had decided what to do about seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida.

However, her glowing comment about the Obama campaign makes it clear which way she must have been leaning for a while.”I have been admiring, just from afar, looking at the way they run the campaign. I have been pretty impressed with this operation. I think he would make a great president.”

Gates had been appointed to her post by former DNC Chair, and current Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe, but she made it clear that she was more interested in winning in 2008 than staying loyal to the Clintons, “My goal is to win the election against the Republican in the general election. I’ve been waiting for this for eight years,” she said.

I don‘t know if many people realize just how big of an impact Bill Clinton had on the shaping of the current Democratic Party in the 1990s. Many DNC members were put in their places in the last decade by people who were loyal to the Clintons.

In some ways, this makes Obama’s victory all the more amazing. In 2008, Clinton controlled the party machinery, but Obama won the hearts of most rank and file Democrats. Obama did begin this campaign as an outsider, but he will end it as the standard bearer for all Democrats. It has been an amazing journey to say the least.

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