Updated at 6:52 a.m., Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Iraq veteran congressman endorses Obama
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The only combat veteran from the war in Iraq serving in Congress endorsed Barack Obama yesterday, a major coup for the Illinois senator as he seeks to persuade voters he's best equipped to be the next commander in chief.Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., who served as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Baghdad in 2003-'04, said Obama is "absolutely our best chance to change the direction of our country."
"I'm inspired by his call to action to change how business is done in Washington," Murphy said. "I believe Sen. Obama believes, as I do, that we need to fight a smarter, tougher war on terror."
The endorsement is a blow to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who has worked with Murphy on a variety of issues, most notably co-sponsoring legislation this spring to enact a new G.I. bill for the 21st century. On Monday, she mentioned Murphy in her speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City.
A spokesman for Clinton declined to comment on the endorsement.
Obama is arriving in New York today, revving up an effort to become more competitive on the frontrunner's home turf.
He is expected to pick up the endorsement of City Councilman Albert Vann, D-Brooklyn, the New York Daily News has learned. Vann joins a small coterie of New York officials bucking the state's junior senator to back Obama.
Meanwhile, in an Op-Ed article Tuesday in The Miami Herald, Obama pledged to grant Cuban-Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to the island. He called the Bush administration's tightening of those rules a blunder that makes the Cuban people more dependent on the Castro regime.
