Governor Bill Richardson Endorses Obama

Richardson Endorses Obama

By Patrick Healy
The New York Times

Friday 21 March 2008

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who sought to become the nation's first Hispanic president this year, plans to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on Friday at a campaign event in Oregon, according to an Obama adviser.

Mr. Richardson, a former congressman and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, dropped out of the Democratic race in January after finishing behind Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Since then, both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have aggressively courted Mr. Richardson for his endorsement. Mrs. Clinton had also deployed her husband, and Mr. Richardson's former boss, to seek the governor's political support; former President Bill Clinton watched the Super Bowl in February with Mr. Richardson, and both Clintons had spent time on the phone trying to persuade him to back her candidacy.

In a statement explaining his endorsement, which was provided by the Obama campaign early Friday morning, Mr. Richardson hailed Mr. Obama's judgment and ability to be commander-in-chief - qualities that Mrs. Clinton has called into question in recent weeks on the campaign trail.

"I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America's moral leadership in the world," Mr. Richardson said in the statement. "As a presidential candidate, I know full well Sen. Obama's unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation."

Mr. Richardson based his candidacy in large part on his strong opposition to the war in Iraq and on calls for an immediate and total withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton both support a steady but carefully paced withdrawal of troops; Mr. Obama, however, was an early, consistent opponent of the war, while Mrs. Clinton voted in 2002 to authorize military action in Iraq and supported the war in its first years.

As a governor, Mr. Richardson is a super-delegate who would have a vote in the nominating contest if neither Mr. Obama nor Mrs. Clinton ends the primary season in June with a lead in the delegates amassed during the 2008 primaries and caucuses. Mr. Obama now has an overall lead of 1,485 delegates, according to an analysis by the New York Times; a candidate needs 2,024 to win the Democratic nomination.

Moreover, as the nation's only Hispanic governor, Mr. Richardson could become a champion for Mr. Obama among Hispanic voters, who have been a key voting bloc for Mrs. Clinton in the primaries thus far. And his endorsement is also notable because he is a friend and admirer of Mrs. Clinton, and was widely viewed as a possible running mate for both her and for Mr. Obama.

Mr. Richardson served as ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Clinton, and has also worked as an official and unofficial troubleshooter for the government on foreign policy issues and crises, drawing on his extensive contacts overseas such as with leaders of North Korea.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander in chief when our nation's security is on the line. He showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has show it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership internationally," Mr. Richardson said in his statement.

In a prepared statement, Mr. Obama said:

"Whether it's fighting to end the Iraq war or stop the genocide in Darfur or prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists, Gov. Richardson has been a powerful voice on issues of global security, peace and justice, earning five Nobel Peace Prize nominations," Obama said in a statement.

Rep. John Lewis Switches His Support From Clinton to Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and a leader of the U.S. civil rights movement, switched his support on Wednesday from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama for his party's presidential nomination.

In the latest campaign setback for Clinton just days before crucial Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas, Lewis said that his constituents back Obama, an Illinois senator, and that it was his "duty ... to express the will of the people."

Clinton had hoped that Lewis, who was severely beaten during civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, would help her win the support of black voters. If he wins the White House in November, Obama would be the first black U.S. president.

Previously, Lewis said he was supporting Clinton, a New York senator, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"Something is happening in America," Lewis said in a statement explaining his shift. "The people are pressing for a new day in American politics and I think they see Sen. Barack Obama as a symbol of that change."

Obama, campaigning in Ohio, said in a statement: "John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, and I am deeply honored to have his support."

For complete article go to Reuters.com

I have to say I'm pleased to see Rep. Lewis listening to his constituents. I think we'll be witnessing more of this in the next few weeks.

Toni Morrison Endorses Obama

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison -- who famously declared Bill Clinton to be the nation's "first black president" in a 1998 essay -- today endorsed Barack Obama for president. In a letter to Obama she writes, "this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it."

Morrison writes of her admiration for Hillary Clinton but says she "cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration".

"Nor do I care very much for your race[s]," Morrison continues to Obama, "I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me 'proud.' "

"In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom.

"Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

"There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time," she concludes.

In an October 1998 essay in The New Yorker, Morrison wrote: "Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime."