Although the announcement was not unexpected, yesterday’s endorsement of Senator Barack Obama by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is “a belt of bad news for [Senator Hillary] Clinton,” according to Saturday’s New York Times, which adds that her “hopes of winning the Democratic nomination seem to be dimming.”

“There’s something special about this guy,” a beaming Mr. Richardson said in reference to Mr. Obama, when asked why he had chosen not to endorse Ms. Clinton, a personal friend. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it’s very good.” (Clinton adviser James Carville believed he had it figured out. “Judas,” he said.)

Mr. Obama was understandably all smiles. The photo at the top of the Times‘ front page this morning—at least in the national edition available in Barre, VT, where Walter is stationed for the weekend—showed Mr. Obama and Mr. Richardson laughing it up, thick as thieves, brothers in arms, etc. (The latter was sporting his take on the post-campaign-loss beard Al Gore has made so fashionable.) Even as he addressed news that his passport files had been peered at by State Department contract employees, Mr. Obama was calm and full of high spirits.

“One of the things that the American people count on in their interactions with any level of government is that if they have to disclose personal information, that is going to stay personal and stay private,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “And when you have not just one, but a series of attempts to tap into people’s personal records, that’s a problem, not just for me, but for how our government is functioning.”

Senator Obama may indeed be serious about tackling privacy issues. But if so, he doesn’t need to wait until he is elected president to do something about it. Still a member of the Senate, he could easily get outspoken with his colleagues about the need to support the House’s version of the FISA bill, which doesn’t grant immunity to the telecom companies who helped the White House spy illegally on American citizens—immunity the Senate version was all too happy to grant.

In his remarks yesterday about Mr. Obama, Mr. Richardson mentioned how impressed he was with the senator’s speech last week on race. “He did not seek to evade tough issues or to soothe us with comforting half-truths,” Mr. Richardson said. But as the Village Voice’s Michael Musto suggested on Wednesday, a Senator Obama who did not spare us the truth might instead “stand up and say: ‘I agree with a lot of what that pastor says! We do act like terrorists sometimes. And whitey is a mean, oppressing motherfucker who’s made life hell for us!”