Yes, the US public will take the endorsement at face value. That is, the educated portion will ignore it--since they are smart enough to know it has no value. And the McCain supporters will ignore it since it does not support their candidate.

You can bet that if it were the reverse--al-Qaeda had endorsed Obama--the McCain supporters would be spreading it far and wide--and citing it as the perfect reason to vote against Obama.

But neither one really needs an outside commentator to suggest that it be ignored.