A political consultant reader writes:
Maybe Kerry himself isn't that helpful, but I know one thing the Obama people are thrilled with today: the voter file. Obama now has access to the largest, most recent presidential campaign voter file. The millions of email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses are invaluable as Obama starts to go national. I imagine the information Kerry has from 2004 could easily double the size of Obama's voter file in states like South Carolina and Nevada and maybe even triple the size in states like California and New York. Also, Obama now has access to activists and supports of Clinton who - in all likelihood - where in Kerry's general election voter file. So while the man himself probably won't give him that big of a boost, the fact that Kerry just pinned his email list is pretty significant in terms of data and list building.