I’ve just been told by a usually reliable source that two major unions–Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union–are meeting today to make national endorsements and they will endorse Barack Obama. This is huge in many respects for Sen. Obama’s campaign.

    First, the two unions together account for more than 3 million members (SEIU has 1.9 million and UFCW has 1.3 million). That’s a lot of people to bring behind one candidate all at once.

    Second, as of yet, the UFCW had not really waded into the political fight. In politics, generally, I would say that the union does not jump out front quickly–it is a bit more cautious (and I don’t mean that as a negative or positive–just fact). For the UFCW to decide to back Obama means that the leadership has either decided that Obama is likely to be the nominee or the leadership is hearing from a lot of its leaders that people in their locals are supporting Obama–or both.

    Third, obviously, SEIU has huge influence throughout the country. So far, the union had left the endorsement decisions to its individual state councils. When John Edwards dropped out of the race, its big California state council shifted to Obama. The endorsement would not be a big surprise. My understanding, from talking to people over the past few months, was that the enthusiastic support really boiled down to a choice between Edwards and Obama.

    Fourth, the Super Tuesday results showed the unions that there was not a lot of risk to endorse Obama because many of their members were voting for him as well.

    Finally, this is not good news for the campaign of Sen Clinton. In the states she is counting on, these two unions have a lot of people who can get to voters, particularly in Ohio.