Because of his status as a former national party chairman, Paul Kirk's endorsement of Barack Obama highlights a mini-trend: he’s the second former chairman in as many days to throw his support behind Obama. (Joe Andrew went yesterday).

Kirk's move is hardly surprising when you consider that his closest ally in politics is Ted Kennedy, one of Obama's top supporters. In fact, although the Obama campaign announced the endorsement today, the Clinton campaign’s tally of superdelegates already had Kirk in the Obama column.

The 70-year-old Kirk is a Massachusetts native (his father was a justice on the state Supreme Judicial Court) and he still has a home in Marstons Mills, not much more than a stone's throw from the Kennedy family estate in Hyannisport. He got his start in politics with Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign, then joined Ted Kennedy's Senate staff, working as his special assistant for most of the 1970's. In 1980, Kirk chaired Kennedy's unsuccessful presidential campaign.

In 1985, with crucial support from Kennedy and his organized labor allies, Kirk was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a post he held through the 1988 election. The highlight of his tenure was the 1986 midterm elections, when his party ended the G.O.P.'s six-year hold on the Senate.  read more »