Former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder Backs Obama

[JI7]

Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, is endorsing Democrat Barack Obama's bid to become the nation's first black president.

Wilder, Virginia's governor from 1990 to 1994 and now Richmond's mayor, praised Obama Friday as "a leader who can move beyond the parochialisms of the past." Wilder wrote in a statement that he is "tremendously impressed" with the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

The 76-year-old Wilder had praised Obama in several news interviews in recent months, but withheld his formal endorsement until one day after Obama's convincing victory in Iowa's Democratic caucuses.

Wilder said in the statement, "Our country is in desperate need of a new direction, new ideas, and new solutions to resolve the circumstances that the U.S. has shouldered in recent years."

Virginia's current governor, Tim Kaine, endorsed Obama last year and recently campaigned for him in Iowa and South Carolina.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0108/485280.html

[Radical Activist]

1. Clinton will lose the black vote big in South Carolina.

The shift is beginning.

[EffieBlack]

3. I know many African Americans who wanted to support Obama

but have been afraid to because they felt that he would never get a fair shot and they didn't want to set him up to fail or see him get hurt. I expect that concern to subside among many after last night and look to see a swelling of support for Obama across the country, especially in the South.

[Cha]

5. Good.. I'm glad we've

passed that hurdle, then!

[RichGirl]

2. The current...

governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, enthusiastically endorsed Obama months ago.

[hayu_lol]

4. Wilder has always been one of the good guys...

his endorsement should carry considerable weight.