There has been lots of talk on the web about whether New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama matters. My view is that it helps considerably for these reasons:

1) Obama needed to change the conversation, and this endorsement helped shift the media’s attention away from the endless rewind/playback of Rev. Jeremiah Wright video clips.

2) Obama’s camp picked off a Clinton camp pass. Richardson should have been comfortably in Clinton’s camp. In order for one of these candidates to gain an edge, they have to start capturing votes from the other. Advantage: Obama.

3) It helps with the overall superdelegate issue. Based on every mathematical scenario I can find, read and comprehend, barring a collapse by either candidate, this is going all the way to the convention. If so, superdelegates will decide it. Richardson is a credible superdelegate, and his support of Obama, which came at the end of Obama’s worst week of the campaign since he lost New Hampshire, should help persuade other on-the-fence superdelegates.

4) It gave Obama positive control over another weekend news cycle at time when it could have been overwhelming negative. It may also help Obama among Hispanics, although none of the remaining states have a substantial Hispanic population. But if he gets the nomination, certainly.

The Clinton campaign’s response has been unkind. First, campaign chief Mark Penn said of Richardson ” The time that he could have been effective has long since passed.” However, Ben Smith of Politico noted that just eight days before the endorsement (and after the Texas primary) Bill and Hillary Clinton both called Richardson asking for his endorsement. Then James Carville compared his act to Judas.

Which no doubt prompted this response from Richardson today on Fox News Sunday. “I’m not going to get in the gutter like that, and that’s symbolic of many of the people around Sen. Clinton. They think they’re entitled to the presidency. It shouldn’t just be Bush-Clinton, Bush-Clinton, you know, what about the rest of us…It’s important we bring in a new generation of leadership.”

Others have weighed in on the Richardson endorsement, Dan Balz of the Washington Post has five reasons why the endorsement boosts Obama. John Dickerson of Slate also thinks the endorsement matters. Andrew Sullivan sums up the endorsement: “an act of simple judgment.”