Dear Senator Obama,
This letter represents a first for me–a public endorsement of a
Presidential candidate.

 I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it.
One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is
one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will
not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain:
this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come
again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts? I have admired Senator Clinton for
years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert

.
However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate.

I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America . Only conservative or “new-centrist” ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me “proud.”

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned
myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen
intelligencee, 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.

 That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom.

 It is too bad if we associate it onlywith gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if webelieve 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. Wisdom is a gift; you can’t train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace–that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.
 

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a
leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country’scitizens as “we,” not “they”? Someone who understands what it will take tohelp America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it
desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing
the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so
frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the
womb.
 

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for
this time.
Good luck to you and to us.
–Toni Morrison”