When the Boston Globe endorsed Barack Obama today, the campaign immediately sent the news out to members of the traveling press on Obama’s Iowa bus tour.

But a couple of hours later when Iowa’s largest paper, The Des Moines Register, announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the campaign pointed the press to this article, that dissects the Register’s endorsement track record. It turns out the paper has never endorsed a candidate who has gone on to win the nomination.

That, of course, didn’t stop Obama from wooing the Register’s editors. At a press avail in Waterloo, Iowa, today, Senator Obama was asked about the endorsement.

“Obviously we would love to have the endorsement of the Des Moines Register and any newspaper here in Iowa - It would be disingenuous to pretend that we haven’t actively sought it,” he told reporters.

After the announcement, spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator was not surprised to hear the news. After all, Gibbs said, “establishment candidates” do well with editorial boards.

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Obama shrugged it off at his Mason City event tonight. “I think this is how we’re going to win this election,” he said, gesturing to the potential caucus goers waiting to shake his hand.