What Makes Something Official?

[fauxklore]

I'm pleased that Bill Richardson is endorsing Obama. I suspect that ups the odds that he'd become the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate (which would be a good thing). But I'm a bit perturbed that most of the day, the news was reading "Richardson will endorse Obama." Isn't announcing that you will endorse a candidate essentially equivalent to endorsing them, even if you haven't made the speech in front of the TV cameras yet?

The same thing applies to resigning from a political office, recognizing a country as independent, and so on.