Toni Morrison Endorses Obama

Toni Morrison's endorsement is very important because she's the one who coined the phrase/concept that Bill Clinton was the "first black president" (which I bristled at when i first heard it but its been repeated often by the black community)

I read the original article (which I can find somewhere). her point was that Bill Clinton was being hounded and persecuted for no reason - something that black men and women understand. Note, Jews understand that too. But anyway. I remember hearing Chris Rock in the late 90s talking about and defending Clinton. It's one reason why they feel so angry now - that the Black community stood by Bill during the impeachment (because they thought it was a lynching) and now that there's a viable black candidate, they want him to stand aside.

However, what the black community has always been angry about is that the white do-gooders are doing things selfishly and not for altruism. Altruism would be to stand aside and let Obama take the nomination. In that sense, I think the Kennedys are being altruistic here - they want Obama to be president because of his talent, yes, but also because he's black.

Ironically, the Clinton-Kennedy split occurring right before our eyes is a sign of which direction the history of the party will take.

Back in 1960, the decision was between FDR vs. Truman. JFK wanted the mantle of FDR while Truman himself argued in favor of Estes Kefauer.

In 1992, Clinton wanted the mantle of Kennedy; but as I said yesterday, Clinton was basically Reagan-lite (and, note, I don't mind that!). But Obama is a liberal, and he'll be an effective liberal.

Obama's liberalism is seen by his work in the Illinois legislature. Against great opposition he managed to get bipartisan agreement for many things - some examples from the Washpost:

"he played an important role in drafting bipartisan ethics legislation and health-care reform. He overcame law enforcement objections to codify changes designed to curb racial profiling and to make capital punishment, which he favors, more equitable."

Here's the Times description of the endorsement with Morrison's key statement:

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.

I totally agree.

{2009 Update, added some missing lines from the original email source and the picture, from here.}