New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley is endorsing Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

  The thoughtful and athletic, former New Jersey senator weighed in pretty late for Howard Dean during the 2004 campaign.

    Bradley's crusade for campaign finance reform and a different kind of politics never got the dose of Obama-like momentum in the 2000 presidential primary he lost to then-Vice President Al Gore.

     Independent voters flocked to the Republican race that year, giving John McCain a blowout of George W. Bush in New Hampshire. Left with too much of the party's base in his own primary, Bradley to Gore lost by 5 points.

    Obama is doing his best to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.

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