Breaking News
The Charleston Gazette reports an endorsement deep with symbolism: West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is endorsing Barack Obama.
From the Endorsement
"After a great deal of thought, consideration and prayer over the situation in Iraq, I have decided that, as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, I will cast my vote for Senator Barack Obama for President. Both Senators Clinton and Obama are extraordinary individuals, whose integrity, honor, love for this country and strong belief in our Constitution I deeply respect."
"I believe that Barack Obama is a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq, and to lead our nation at this challenging time in history. Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support."
Full Statement below the flip.
This could really set off a firestorm of anger toward Senator Robert Byrd for such an endorsement. I would certainly encourage everyone to send Senator Byrd a letter of Thanks and appreciation immediately before the anger comes from the other side.
Email the good Senator
Write a hand written letter
Make a Phone call
Full Endorsement
Senator Byrd’s statement follows:
"As people all across this great nation know, I have been one of the most outspoken opponents of the Bush Administration’s misguided war in Iraq and its saber rattling around the globe."
"With the Bush Administration’s latest request to fund this on-going war in Iraq without any attempt to start bringing our troops home, the issue of the upcoming presidential contest has been weighing heavily on my heart. The loss of life continues and the sons and daughters of tens of thousands of American families remain in harm’s way every day."
"This Democratic primary campaign has been tough and competitive. I had no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia’s primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher."
"After a great deal of thought, consideration and prayer over the situation in Iraq, I have decided that, as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, I will cast my vote for Senator Barack Obama for President. Both Senators Clinton and Obama are extraordinary individuals, whose integrity, honor, love for this country and strong belief in our Constitution I deeply respect."
"I believe that Barack Obama is a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq, and to lead our nation at this challenging time in history. Barack Obama is a noble-hearted patriot and humble Christian, and he has my full faith and support."
The Senator's Speech opposing the War in Iraq
Ben Smith Reprints a great passage from Audacity of Hope that I hope everyone reads and understand.
Listening to Senator Byrd I felt with full force all the essential contradictions of me in this new place, with its marble busts, its arcane traditions, its memories and its ghosts. I pondered the fact that, according to his own autobiography, Senator Byrd had received his first taste of leadership in his early twenties, as a member of the Raleigh County Ku Klux Klan, an association that he had long disavowed, an error he attributed—no doubt correctly—to the time and place in which he'd been raised, but which continued to surface as an issue throughout his career. I thought about how he had joined other giants of the Senate, like J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and Richard Russell of Georgia, in Southern resistance to civil rights legislation. I wondered if this would matter to the liberals who now lionized Senator Byrd for his principled opposition to the Iraq War resolution—the MoveOn.org crowd, the heirs of the political counterculture the senator had spent much of his career disdaining.
I wondered if it should matter. Senator Byrd's life—like most of ours—has been the struggle of warring impulses, a twining of darkness and light. And in that sense I realized that he really was a proper emblem for the Senate, whose rules and design reflect the grand compromise of America's founding: the bargain between Northern states and Southern states, the Senate's role as a guardian against the passions of the moment, a defender of minority rights and state sovereignty, but also a tool to protect the wealthy from the rabble, and assure slaveholders of noninterference with their peculiar institution. Stamped into the very fiber of the Senate, within its genetic code, was the same contest between power and principle that characterized America as a whole, a lasting expression of that great debate among a few brilliant, flawed men that had concluded with the creation of a form of government unique in its genius—yet blind to the whip and the chain.
I recall from reading the book, it was Senator Byrd that the Freshman Senator was urged to meet when first getting to the Hill and in their meeting, Senator Byrd urged Barack to read the Rules and Follow the Rules. It was in the Rules of the Senate that Mastery could be found of political proceedings... and Knowledge of those rules created power. As a dedicated Obama supporter, Senator Byrd's endorsement carries power and symbolism far beyond any state's vote... it carries the weight of History. It carries the strength of Party. And knowing Senator Byrd, I know it carries with it tremendous Insight and Reason. This was not done lightly, and Byrd did not intend to influence the election of his state, but his endorsement speaks volumes as to why sometimes, living in a Republic is better than living in a Pure Democracy. West Virginia elected Robert Byrd time and again to carry her voice to the Senate, and it's Robert Byrd's voice, in contradiction to his State's will, that carries weight today.
This sort of thing is why Superdelegates really matter. I can't think of a bigger Superdelegate today... Senator Byrd Embodies Super.