Toni Morrison Praises Obama's Creative Imagination, Brilliance and Wisdom

[28 January 2008 - New York Times] Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of author Toni Morrison, who once labeled Bill Clinton as the ''first black president.'' Morrison said she has has admired Obama rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for years because of her knowledge and mastery of politics, but cited Obama's ''creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom.'' Morrison said her endorsement had little to do with Obama's race -- he is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas -- but rather his personal gifts. Writing with the touch of a poet in a letter to the Illinois senator, Morrison explained why she chose Obama over Clinton for her first public presidential endorsement. ''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,'' Morrison wrote. ''That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it." More