Toni Morrison to endorse Obama; also Rep. Patrick Kennedy

By: teacherken
Published On: 1/28/2008 9:42:47 AM

ABC News is reporting:
ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison -- who famously declared Bill Clinton to be the nation's "first black president" -- is endorsing Barack Obama for president today, an Obama campaign source tells ABC News.

the significance?  

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."

UPDATE also Ted Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy of RI.  Providence Journal has that story.


Comments



the announcement should be today according to ABC (teacherken - 1/28/2008 9:43:29 AM)
when the Obama campaign releases a letter from Morrison


Kennedy Kiss of Death (veryblue - 1/28/2008 10:26:36 AM)
The Kennedy Kiss is the kiss of death. Most moderates as well as conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, hate the Kennedys, especially, Ted.

And, so what if another of the many rich, spoiled Kennedy brats support a Democrat?

Sorry, Jack Kennedy didn't do anything for this country.  Lots of pretty words, fights with our neighbors, whores for him and the boys in the White House, and yes, by the way, his campaign paid poor out-of-work miners in West Virginia to vote for him.  Lost my respect forever.  

I don't really like Ted either.  Fat, slow, and useless. Remind me of Ted's great legislative accomplishments -- No Child Left Behind -- with Bush.  It's on its way down the toilet.    



I think you will find few here agreeing with you (teacherken - 1/28/2008 11:07:01 AM)
Bill Clinton traded heavily on his handshake with JFK at Boys' Nation.

And Teddy is a real hero - to labor, to Black, and especially to Hispanics because of where he has stood on immigration issues



and (Scripple - 1/28/2008 11:09:52 AM)
as long as we're talking about philandering in the White House...


Beloved . . . (JPTERP - 1/28/2008 2:41:51 PM)
by his constituents and most Democrats.  The Kennedy's have benefited from their involvement in politics, but Ted has done quite a bit for his home state and the Northeast.

I'm willing to guess that you probably loved Ted Kennedy before a couple days ago.  And that you're still Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's #1 Fan.



Ted Kennedy (Bernie Quigley - 1/28/2008 3:36:43 PM)
I think people in New England feel the same about Ted Kennedy but have an internal layer of support. Generally speaking, there was a distaste for Ted Kennedy for a long time because he is not Jack and because of his failings as a young man. That is how I felt. But I began to respect him as a senior statesman at the beginning of the war on Iraq. He was right on Iraq with Obama and Wes Clark. Some people improve with time (Pilgrims's Progress); some get worse.


The Kennedys . . . (JPTERP - 1/28/2008 4:24:03 PM)
it interesting how there are still Kennedy haters WITHIN New England (my grandmother from Rhode Island being one example within my family circle).  These are exceptional cases though.

Even in the case of my grandmother, I think she might give notice to the comments of someone like Caroline Kennedy -- a Kennedy who has made responsible use of her celebrity.  The endorsements from Ted and Caroline compliment each other as well -- reinforcing each other at some points, but also touching different audiences and different constituencies.



Jackie was from Rhode Island . . . (Bernie Quigley - 1/28/2008 8:44:15 PM)
nominally at least - the very rich had "cottage" (mansion) homes in Newport and that is where Jack and Jackie got married; in Jackie's Newport parish.


I Know It Is Heresy To Attack JFK... (HisRoc - 1/28/2008 4:05:16 PM)
...but the truth is that his untimely death probably saved his legacy.  Alistair Cooke probably put it as charitably as possible:  "The greatness of John F. Kennedy lies not in anything that he accomplished but in the promise of what he might have done."

Kennedy probably stole the 1960 election when he won Illinois because of fraudulent voting in Mayor Richard "Bring-Out-Your-Dead" Daley's Chicago.  He was a hopeless womanizer who would make Bill Clinton blush.  His naivete in foreign policy triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis when he took on Kreuschev in the so-called Kitchen Debate.  Only Bobby Kennedy's sage advice saved us from a nuclear war.  He had serious addiction problems with pain killers and he started the entire Vietnam mess single-handedly.  If he had lived through a full term as President, I suspect that some or all of this would have come back to haunt him.

As for Ted, I think that the bumper sticker after the nuclear power plant accident outside of Harrisburg, PA, said it best:  "More people were killed at Chappaquiddick than at Three Mile Island."

BTW, I'm surprised that Patrick Kennedy didn't endorse his fellow rehab alumnus, GWB.  



Ted Kennedy's Endorsement Was More About Slapping Down Billary (HisRoc - 1/28/2008 4:35:09 PM)
BTW, if you watched Kennedy's endorsement speech on CNN, it was clearly more of a slap at the Clintons than an embracement of Obama.

Kennedy told the Clintons to tone down the attacks on Obama, a fellow Democrat.  When they ignored him, he decided to show them the back of his hand.  



Bullshit... (Doug in Mount Vernon - 1/28/2008 5:59:21 PM)
Did you see the same speech I did?

He absolutely GLOWED about Obama!



"Fat, slow, and useless" (Chris Guy - 1/28/2008 4:39:14 PM)
In a 2003 episode of The Simpsons, they parodied Fox News and aired a fake news crawl across the bottom of the screen:

POINTLESS NEWS CRAWLS UP 37 PERCENT ... DO DEMOCRATS CAUSE CANCER? FIND OUT AT FOXNEWS.COM ... RUPERT MURDOCH: TERRIFIC DANCER ... DOW DOWN 5000 POINTS ... STUDY: 92 PERCENT OF DEMOCRATS ARE GAY ... JFK POSTHUMOUSLY JOINS REPUBLICAN PARTY ... OIL SLICKS FOUND TO KEEP SEALS YOUNG, SUPPLE ... DAN QUALYE: AWESOME ... ASHCROFT DECLARES BREAST OF CHICKEN SANDWICH "OBSCENE" ... HILLARY CLINTON EMBARRASSES SELF, NATION ... BIBLE SAYS JESUS FAVORED CAPITAL-GAINS CUT ... STAY TUNED FOR HANNITY AND IDIOT ... ONLY DORKS WATCH CNN ... JIMMY CARTER: OLD, WRINKLY, USELESS ... BRAD PITT + ALBERT EINSTEIN = DICK CHENEY ...

Fox News almost sued Fox, because they thought it would confuse it's viewers. I'm not kidding!

link



Too Funny! (HisRoc - 1/28/2008 5:17:27 PM)


republicans are whistling at the wind (pvogel - 1/28/2008 11:20:29 AM)
Repeat  after me

"Bushe last state of the union"

Ted kennedy has his faughts, But the Bushes are nothing but a festering  bag  faughts.

Republicans are all about stealing our money.
The Pharmeceutical companies are violating OLD TESTAMENT LAW.
A change is a coming.  You dont need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.



Blue but (veryblue - 1/29/2008 1:03:50 AM)
Who among you said anytning but that JFK had nice words.  He was a threat to our country.  Read history. Grow up.  Obama provides the same BS.  You like feel-good.  Go to the bar and have a Jack Daniels.  We don't need another neo..