Maria Shriver endorses Obama

At a rally starring Oprah and her cousin Caroline Kennedy, the Republican governor's wife comes out for a Democrat.

Published February 3, 2008 10:52PM (EST)

I'll do a longer dispatch on the Oprah-Michelle Obama-Caroline Kennedy rally at UCLA today, but I wanted to report the news: California's first lady, Maria Shriver, just endorsed Barack Obama. (Her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain last week.)

Shriver quoted Eleanor Roosevelt, who once said: "Do one thing every day that scares you," and said: "Eleanor, no matter where you are, this is my one thing for today. I thought to myself when I woke up this morning, there is no other place I should be today." She told her daughter she was headed to UCLA.

"The more I thought about it, I thought, if Barack Obama was a state, he'd be California. Diverse, open, smart, independent, bucks tradition, inspiring, dreamer, leader."

An Obama staffer told me that to her knowledge, that's the way it happened. I'll have more later.


By Joan Walsh



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2008 Elections