Hillary Clinton Is Endorsed By John Lewis, The Hero of Bloody Sunday

Via Hillary Hub, we learn this morning that Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights hero, has endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Lewis's endorsement is a sign of vitality within the African American political establishment. It's a boost to Sen. Clinton in an important February 5 state with a disproportionately high number of African American voters, and no doubt will be interpreted by the press as a sleight of Barack Obama, who did indeed court Mr. Lewis for an endorsement. (That's unusual: Obama has made a show of not particularly caring about endorsements, but some he wants, and this one he wanted.)

Obama and Clinton both traveled to Selma, AL to commemorate the civil rights march there 42 years ago, a march in which Mr. Lewis participated and was beaten by police. He was the head of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee at the time.

Earlier this year, Obama's campaign was confident that it would receive Mr. Lewis's endorsement.

“I have looked at all the candidates, and I believe that Hillary Clinton is the best prepared to lead this country at a time when we are in desperate need of strong leadership,” Lewis said in a statement. “She will restore a greater sense of community in America, and reclaim our standing in the world.”

Comments

This one hurts, no question about it.

Posted by cms | October 12, 2007 11:18 AM

This hurts Obama, but I wonder if this will be seen as an endorsement of Hillary or a favor to Bill...

Posted by David | October 12, 2007 11:29 AM

I think that is just a political calculation by Mr Lewis. They are thinking of their future favors and opportunities that might be given them by the so-called front-runner if goes to the white house. Thought Mr Lewis is respected with the black community that does not mean that they will follow like sheep. They are intelligent enough to make there own personal evaluation of the candidates to vote for. So Mr Lewis or Not Barack has a great chance of winning this nomination!

Posted by wazo langu | October 12, 2007 11:35 AM

Wonderful news for Hillary. It seems the country is truly getting behind her candidacy as she continues to run an excellent campaign and, more importantly, to disprove the image that the rightwing and some on the left have tried to perpetuate.

Congratulations to Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Kate Deniver | October 12, 2007 11:55 AM

Wazo,
Great of you to define Lewis as an opportunist like this. I don't think he is at all looking for favors here. Say that about other endorsers, maybe but not about Lewis.

Also, check these new Rasmussen polls showing Clinton building up leads against Giuliani and Thompson.

Posted by Daniel | October 12, 2007 11:57 AM

I think that is just a political calculation by Mr Lewis. They are thinking of their future favors and opportunities that might be given them by the so-called front-runner if goes to the white house. Thought Mr Lewis is respected with the black community that does not mean that they will follow like sheep. They are intelligent enough to make there own personal evaluation of the candidates to vote for. So Mr Lewis or Not Barack has a great chance of winning this nomination!

NO, I totally disagree with you. Obama has shown he's not ready for "prime time." He has made too many mistakes and the last two was just unforgivable in my opinion.

1)The flag issue was so unnecessary and arrogant.
2)The Michigan pull out on the ballot didn't do any thing but showed his disrespect to the MI voters to pander to Iowa and New Hampshire.

I find it very telling that Mr. Lewis (a civil rights hero) gave his support to Hillary Clinton at this time.

Posted by girladvenger | October 12, 2007 12:19 PM

The fact that Lewis supports Hillary just stupefies me, as I thought he had more moral courage than that. I truly believe he is endorsing her because of his relationship with Bill, instead of using his intelligence to go with the best possible in an entire generation...Obama. It certainly lessens my respect for him, because he's always been thought of as a giant and hero of the civil rights movement, and this one act of endorsement of Hillary looks like a quid pro quo kind of thing for previous access to Bill.

Something to consider...Remember when the Rwandan genocide occurred in the 1990s and over 1 million people were slaughtered in just a few months? That happened when Clinton was in the White House. They did nothing. Other so-called civilized countries' leaders did nothing, either, but they're not running for the presidency, either. Why do people forget about this treatment of over 1 million Africans, and then all one hears is how good Bill Clinton treated African Americans here.

Don't the Clintons have to say something about that disgraceful chapter when they occupied the White House, when they basically did nothing and watched a genocide occur by satellite? If you notice, Bill Clinton and Hillary, too, never miss a chance for a photo op with Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela or the John Lewis' of this world. It takes people's minds off of the criminal negligence in NOT TRYING to stop that genocide. They did try to stop genocide in Bosnia, however. Is it because they are Europeans? Just asking.

I'm really shocked and disappointed that John Lewis, like George McGovern, would go with someone who TOTALLY BANGED THE DRUM FOR WAR and later 'flip-flopped' but engages in so much calculation and triangulation, ad nauseum. Neither one supported the candidate that had the moral courage to oppose the war from the start and predicted exactly everything that has happened. In other words, the argument of 'judgment' is right on target, and Obama has it. He stands up and speaks truth to power...he did it in Detroit, speaking of CAFE fuel standards; he did it at the NEA; he did it when he said he'd talk to adversaries without preconditions.

Isn't it interesting that Obama's stance on Cuba is finding far more favor in the Cuban American community in Miami than Hillary's post cold war stance of conventional thinking of not talking to Castro. He's outlived 6 presidents and our squeezing their economy, a tiny communist island in the Caribbean, while having China as our banker and selling us everything we touch in our country, that shows how absolutely absurd and even inhumane our Cuba policy has been, not to mention an utter failure.

Obama came out and said the truth...that the best ambassadors to Cuba are Cuban Americans, themselves, and that he wants unrestricted travel and unrestricted remittances. Bravo...the first common sense Cuba policy statements in how many generations! Once again, Senator Obama is out front, leading in a coherent, intelligent and humane manner.

Hillary does not exhibit any moral courage, that I've seen. Conversely, in 2002, Senator Obama spoke out publicly and strongly, against this 'rash, dumb, ideological war of choice'. He did so even though it could have jeopardized his Senate run. He had the moral courage to speak out, even when the Congress was moving in lock-step behind President Bush in banging the drum to go to war. Obama stood up and SPOKE TRUTH TO POWER.

Also, he doesn't pander to any audience. Other politicians tell specific audiences exactly what they want to hear, even if it is wrong for the country. Obama speaks the hard truths to all constituencies he addresses, even if it hurts. America is facing a lot of hard truths these days, and Obama stands out as a unique leader who doesn't sugarcoat the truth. The stakes are too high.

Judgment - Zbignew Brzezinski, one of the most distinguished foreign policy experts in America today, recently formally endorsed him for president, and he said he did so because of Obama's good judgment. He noted how President Kennedy was advised by those all around him to use nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And yet, this young, wise president had the good judgment to say no to them, and use a naval blockade, instead. He saved us all from an all-out nuclear war! THAT is the good judgment Brzezinski is talking about.

The wisdom that Senator Obama has shown is what our country needs in a president. In contrast, Senators Clinton, Biden, Edwards and Dodd ALL voted for the war and Sen. Clinton didn't even take the time to read the 90 page NIE (National Intelligence Estimate), that was given to all senators, even with 10 days to read the report, before casting the most important vote of her life. That is a double tragedy. First, not reading the report before sending other people's kids off to die or get maimed in a war represents a gross dereliction of duty. Second, she did not ask the hard questions before the vote and, fearing looking weak, cast the wrong vote.

Also, if being first lady in the governor's mansion for 8 years and another 8 years in the White House qualifies as relevant 'experience' to be president, then why not Laura Bush for president? How preposterous is that? This is how the Clinton Machine spins and manipulates perceptions, with Bill Clinton going around calling her 'the most qualified non-incumbent in all his years of voting'. I guess if you repeat something enough times, people believe it. And if one of them is not on the MSM, the other one is, piggybacking each other and hogging the media airwaves, 24/7 in this tag team dog and pony show to saturate American's minds with only Clintons...their images, voices, everywhere you look. I just hope the people in Iowa, NH and South Carolina have their blitzkrieg filters up and running.

The single most important quality in a president is judgment. He's got it. Time served in Washington does not equate to good judgment, as the other long-time Washington insiders have proven. In Obama, we have someone who will unite our country and the world.

At the end of the last quarter, there were 350,000 of us coast-to-coast supporters, many of whom have never been involved in political campaign volunteering efforts, ever! I personally feel it is an honor and also extremely empowering to participate in this massive grassroots effort for Obama's presidential campaign, and it is transforming politics as usual.

I cannot support anyone else, as no one can come close to the breadth and depth of his diverse and rich body of life experience.

Posted by pacifica1 | October 12, 2007 1:44 PM

I live in Atlanta and John Lewis's endorsement of Clinton doesn't mean anything. It's viewed as a political calculation since Obama doesn't cow tow to the Jesse Jackson's of the world.

Posted by sonya | October 12, 2007 1:48 PM

I wonder if this has more to do with he friendship to Bill than anything. Hillary has never been to the hood by herself. She went there recently pander to her target audiance and proposed her baby bonds fiasco. That fizzled but it apparently garnished support. She has, to her credit, learned a little ebonics that she has shared that day. She said "Brooklyn is in the house." Somehow I don't think she learned that on the street. This is about Bill Clinton and John Lewis.

Posted by johnnyraygun | October 12, 2007 3:24 PM